AFL 360 - Dons in a rebuild?! Are the Bombers' toughest years upon us? Plus, Lyon sounds off on 'slaughtered' Dees! - 24/03/25

Published Mar 24, 2025, 10:14 AM

Catch up on all the footy news from AFL 360, Monday the 24th of March with Gerard Whateley and Garry Lyon.

AFL 360 hosts Gerard Whateley and Garry Lyon turn the spotlight on Essendon and ask the big question: Is the club in a rebuild and are the Bombers facing their most challenging years, or is there hope for the future? Meanwhile, Lyon shares his thoughts on Melbourne's heavy defeat, calling it a ‘slaughter’ and suggesting the problems may lie with the coaching.

For more of the show tune in on Fox Footy & KAYO

Essendon coach Brad Scott at the desk start Dan mcg shocker and the headaches are only compounding this Thursday night Looms.

Losing came with a gravity in round two as questions of prospects and capability come in to sharp light.

But the joy of winning was infectious as long time sufferers and first time Victor's bath then the spoils.

You talked about his step into it, embrace.

All of it in the room and Vinton it's unedifying for a senior coach to do that.

They're on the side of Courtia with the brain cape the man.

They played the best footy I've ever seen at the start of the season. And in the president left the couple older said, of course they do.

Is the stuff that legends are made of. What is holding the ball? I don't think I could answer it clearly right now that I can do something wrong, you know, And I need to go and the board sexually. The fans lover and with no fans, no through sixty year old.

Foy is bursting from all angles after that round two. Gas can't wait to get into it.

With you so much to get our teeth indo. Jaredd's storylines everywhere, and joy of the faces of some long suffering fans, which I loved.

I love seeing you lived the columnists stream on Friday. You wrote the piece that was beautiful, Jackdy, Lou Richards, Nick Dakos, Sam Darcy set parameters for them, Dacos thirty plus Darcy's eight marks three goals. They both exceeded their markers. They've tied in the coaches votes eight a piece and unsplitable.

I did a ring around to find out if you had the pick. I did cop a bit of abuse, saying how ridiculous Nick Dakos is here? And I said, read the article. We say, we know that Sam Darcis had some injuries, but some of the luminaries that I spoke to you suggested that it was Nick Dakos. Any chance that you might want to change or revisit Jared By the end of the.

Night, you're going that was a happening with Sam Darcy. So Nix of well declared commodity. But this is the rarest thing in footy. What Sam Darcy looks like.

There's less and less of him out there. That would be the only reason you plump for him. You'd be happy to take either. But to be there on Friday night and watch the best small man in footy go around and get thirty nine, and then just to see san Darcy take on quality opponents multiple and keep marking over the top of them and kicking goals. It was a joy to be there. And Western Bulldogs fans, you've got a lot to look forward to it.

It was a bit like pick black caveat or wins. You'd happily have either.

He has been described as the Victor Wimbanyama of Alien. Do you like that?

I do? And I get that out Harley reads the other procos talent who's in the news. So the AFL has issued a please explain there's not a lot to explain it.

I can explain it, maybe, dickhead Harli it's for an intervention here. Yeah, there's West Coast, don't it's about forty other teams that will. We spoke about this last week and he got more criticism and he bought that on himself. But as I said last week and preempted this, he's a nine nine year old. He'll make a fool of himself, well, embarrass himself and giving seven free kicks away no good, but he's nineteen, and learn a lesson and learn it the hard way. If you want Harley, you're making it hard for yourself, but you'll get there, all right.

This is all we've got lined up as the week unfolds. Here on three sixty Coaches Night, Brad Scott and Adamous. They're actually coaching the two youngest teams in the competition at the moment. They're here at the desk and then immediately following us on the couch as Jack Reebolt guides the big opinions from the events of round two. We're doubling down on us and Zach Merritt is living this at the moment as the skipper, so he's going to be with us and Locke Neil, who roared back the form. I thought with Raiser's Edge, we might do the last quarter of the Bulldog's Collingwood games. And it's been so contentious, contentious, all right, and there'll be plenty of people sitting back and waiting for it through them. And then Simon Goodwin is with us as he documents the journey of the senior coach throughout the year. So there's zero and two of the d's and they've had vastly different experiences so far. They're a big part of our conversation coming and Simo and Horse as the eyes most freshly out of the game. Each Monday starts with the mostvaluable player votes in the estimation of Gary lyon the GVPS. It's the best prize in footing. One of our players will be behind the wheel of the Ford Mustang GT Fastback valued at ninety three thousand dollars Iconic Design, Unreal Performance five lead at the eight engine. Who was in the running this week?

I'm limited Towney three, which I'll say every week, and I promise you that this would be different. So I'm not sure Zach Jones is going to feature too many places, but I gave him a vote, sat out and watch that game. I thought he was I know he's a bit of a whipping boy Zach Jones for Secula fans and the more fans in general. But I thought he set the scene. I thought he set the standard early that had them go out to a forty point lead. He had nineteen possessions the first half, set goals up. I thought his work rate was great and he just jumped off the page to me. I wasn't looking at any stat sheets at the time. I thought she had a big say in that. So one vote to Zach Jones, two to Tristan Sherry. You cut the head off the snake when you play Melbourne and Max has been the biggest snake for ten years and he beat him. He just took him and beat him. And that's twelve clearances and took him to the goal square and gloriously marked in front of the North Melbourne cheer squad and kicked the goal. So he was great.

There was talk today around torch passings and mantles being handed over.

How please, Jared Novak Jockovi, you'd lose in the first round once or twice, give us a couple of Grand slams, Tristan, and then you can have the torch. So it's only round two. But I thought he was absolutely outstanding, and when this happened on Friday night, no one else was getting three votes from me. Still, Sidebottoms performance, particularly in the last quarter, just set him apart. And there's a message in all of this. It's not the mistake that matters. We all make mistakes, we all have terrible games, Teams have terrible games, and still had a moment here where he just didn't go hard enough to footy. The goals kicked. That's what happens next is what definds you as a player or a club or a commentator or whatever it is. And his next few minutes were just off the charts and ended up in the winning goal. To me, that just summed up still side bottom as a footballer. That's why you play three hundred plus games. And he won the game from him off his book. But the message in all of it it is not the mistake. It's how you respond. And there's a few teams that responded on the weekend as well. So there it is. There's the three.

Three birds s sidebottom in the gv P. Alright, let's get into the agenda, and it is steeped in the battle for the four points that raged across the weekend, the joy, the joy that was felt by those who are on the right side of it, and the shaky ground that is now occupied by those on the wrong end.

You still won the last chance, shut three seconds to mark it off.

What's breakthrough? Yeah? Really proud of the playing group.

What's your reaction?

I disappointed to again listen to this talkball and fans tell listen to this.

Let's learn there's one victory as a step in the right direction for us, and this.

Is validation and belief in the group.

Sien.

What then for the Saints.

They get it done by.

Seven points, The Saints are marching in tonight.

Well, you can't buy it belief. The confidence comes from action, doesn't.

Well, it is a feeling and emotion. O.

The Siren Sunds.

Coming wood just so good. But it mattered. They looked loose, they disorganized defensively.

He was a blood bath back there. The effort wasn't there in the end from Essendon. It's an absolute mess.

It's a tough fix because it's problems absolutely everywhere.

They've become easy to play against as as simple as that. No, we don't need to wake up call it all.

We're well aware of how hard this game is. If you're not to that level in AFL footy, you get punished, and today we got punished ultimately in the last quarter of the damn well.

Burg So walk away disappointed. That's would you started start.

For needing base of applying back the new North Melbourne torminant.

We're two weeks in and we're saying, you're not going to create a crisis.

Crisis crisis.

The mix of what we got. I don't want to step past the winning because the losing that the story is there. The winning was North Melbourne and that was it was being felt across the community today to here from North Melbourne, people who for six years haven't felt that's the last quarter that they got. Some were taking it back to the frank the tank went over estened it in a final that was that good? That was this the first step out of the wilderness.

I think so. And apart from the fact that's the team my bag for it was against. It was absolute joyful to watch because the investment that the football club has made in the draft and making picks. You look through it. There are toys, serious toys for Alister Clarkson to play with and he needed to win like this.

So you felt coming into the season that he was under more pressure.

Well, he's one of the all time greats. But time stands still for no man and he's had two years of interruptions that have been well documented. But Canny sprinkle his magic over this group and extract the best out of them. Simpkin, LD you Tom Powell, Fino Sullivan, Colby mccirche, Harry sheesl Will Phillips, and Charlie Comdon. These are all their first picks. Charlie wasn't a first round pick. The rest of them are and it just came together gloriously. And the side that they beat had to live through enormous amount of pain until their early draft picks came to fruition and blossomed and then they are away. And I think this is a sort of game that they needed as a club, Clark I needed as a coach, And tell you what they won't because of the quality of that group that I just read out. They don't look back. They just get better, and that's a scary proposition for everyone. The prospect of them in Adelaide this week is just delightful because the Crows were magnificent. We'll get to them in a moment that I just loved what they did. I love the way they played, and I love the reactions of everyone. All right.

So the other side of the Coiners Melbourne, how concern it was a performance.

Like that, Well, the concern is that it's just a haunting familiarity about it, and that is this goes to coaches and coaching and that third quarter they had nine, eight inside fifties and kick one goal too, so they got that's when they lost it. That's when they got smashed. They still had nine and inside fifties. They still won territory. And the haphazard way they go forward is for a whole supporter base and players, I would imagine, and coaches. It's just that only North Melbourne have taken fewer contested marks inside fifty in the last two and a half years, only North Melbourne. Yet they continually bomb the ball in on top of a group of players that don't take a test of marks and Charlie Condon just sitting there going, oh, I have every piece of that. That's what frustrates supporters the most and the players the most. And they're at a bit of a crossroad here, they really are. It's whether the style of game that they have has held them in such good stead is getting passed by the kickers. And this is Charlie comdon look at. I can slow this down and dissect this, but if I haven't been doing this on the couch for the last five years, I'll go and I'll go crazy. And yet look at that as Charlie Spargo with Pink and Comdon and yet nineteen times you go inside fifty in a third quarter you kick one goal too and get your pants pulled down. So that's a coaching thing. So I'm a good One'll be here on Wednesday. That's a forward line group where you go, yeah, look over the summer, we think Van Ruy and Fritz Turner, Jefferson and Johnson's going to do it and ain't. I don't think it's going to do it.

And then what happened in the middle at the start of the last quarter. So this is the vaunted area of their game, yes.

And not even at the start of the last quarter, I would suggest at the start of the game. And this is with the joy of North Melbourne because this is the best part of Melbourne. It's Max and it's Jack and it's Christian and Clayton and they got slaughtered in there. They got slaughtered. So they're a proud group. We've seen others respond this week in a manner that you'd hope that the question marks for them. It's their turn to sit under the bright, bright light until such time as they can turn the dimmer on.

So we've had one that was highly promising against the Giants in again whisker away from winning, and then we've had one that just hints that they're in quicksand a little yeah.

And the thing about the first round, we sat here and you said, what do you like about I said, I liked that it was a bit different, a bit different. They just regressed. They went back to being same old Melbourne kicking on the head of a group of blocks that haven't taken a contest of marks since David.

Niets was curious moment in the post game, which we'll ask Simon Goodwin about on Wednesday, when he referenced the off field for Max Gorn.

I think he'll acknowledged that he got beaten by a really good opponent today. But you also got to realize that in life, there are other things that are going on, so you will support Max is a great person, he's a great leader, and you know there's a backstory to everyone's performance, and Max is someone that we take enormous pride in and he's going to continue to be a great leader for this footy club and he'll be a big part of our response.

With the best of intentions, wise or unwise.

Unwise, and I suspect that he's doing it for all the right reasons. I love the players, the connection, Max are great closer. All that did was invite scrutiny in questions, and what I would say is Max never has never since I've been watching Melbourne look for an excuse, and I don't Reckon Simon needed to provide one. Perhaps didn't. He just provided some gray area. So I'm sure Max will clarify it. Simon will when he comes in here. And yeah, I think that was a mistake last night out of the West.

So this was the game of the round in prospect. It was tense. Both teams were feeling it early in the season. The desperation for a win lived it through Dean Cox, who was magnificently emotional updown and then the last quarter is at ebbed and flowed defines by Joel Loamarty's He's had some good moment. This is his best moment in footy to go forward off the bench. So you've got to play hurt one on one game on the line and brush aside and accomplished defender to win the game. That's a moment.

Yeah, it is. I suspect well, I didn't know that he had this kind of moment in him, to be perfectly honest. It's one of my concerns for this Sydney side is whether they're toll forwards are capable of big moments. Well, this will give great confidence to a lot of them and goes back and kicks the goal. So it was a stunning game. It was a fantastic game of footy. Freemantle get no in the end, they get no points, but I gave them credit for the way they went about it. I give more credit to the Sydney socide. I just found away in the end. And yeah, it's moments another second, two seconds later Joe Amos is kicking the goal and we're talking about how good Frei were and how Sydney going to the buy zero three. But you earn what you get. No one hands your stuff in footy, in particularly in the modern day, and they refuse to yield. At times it looked like it was going to get away from them, so Doane Cox gets a bit of a reprieve. It's to just take a deep breath by coming hopefully get a player or two back and for justin the pressure and the spotlight it's a bit sharper yep.

So the difference between zero and three and one and two of the by for Sydney, yeah, so for Freemantle it it brings things into a focus quicker than they would have liked. They would have liked to be out of the blockx. It was a tough fiction knowing that it was Geelong and then Sydney's high end. But it is at home and the Derby's just the Derby's traditionally are their own isolated events. But they've got to get themselves on the right side of it.

They have got what a lot of teams are screaming out for Fremantle. They have got a beast of a forward who is a competitive animal and will kick your sixty or seventy goals if you get it to him. So I would hope that that's the message. Well, I'm looking at the telly screaming out and say go forward. Josh Tracy is just ready to rip this thing to shreds Amos will help him out. Go forward, And I.

Just don't reckon they do enough after a week of doom saying se Kilda brought love the core of their game, so to get results. Ross is going to have to coach every years off. They'll have to redline and bring the pressure, and they especially bring it at that ground, and then tactically so nuanced in what they were doing to just deny Geelong the ball, but not in a negative way. They've got the halftime and they played their house down and you're looking through these blokes haven't touched it.

Did you see it coming? Could you have mounted the case at all? Coming in there.

Only only on the track specialist idea of playing Geelong at Marvel with a system that Ross has got a few things that work against Geelong that few other teams have.

Gone don't give them the footy for start, which is a pretty good idea at the risk of Chris coming back in and boxing my years is one of those commentators. They didn't look ready, and I know he railed at it and he called us whatever you see, we're all idiots. That's fair enough to in the heat of a postgame hand high in the air. I'm looking at it on the telly. They didn't look like they were up and about in terms of the desired level of intensity that security bought. That's just an observation from the lound room, and they got out to forty points and then you know, all of a sudden they found a gear and got competitive in the end. But I was wrapped for securita. I mean, I didn't really care who won in the end. But when you need a reminder of the great coaches and great you know, Alice the Clarkson is a great, great coach because he's got premierships under his belt, we got the reminder. And Rossie Lyon is that. You know, I've talked enough to all these boys and watched enough that footy tactically as good as any and we got another reminder of it. So if you are.

Underman, say in the head to head the talent equation, bring pressure like that. Yeah, and the pressure like that will shake anyone.

Yeah, well the next team might need the same advice, yeah, because yess and didn't bring that at all to the MCG when they had to.

So you're on duty for this game. Yeah, I saw it in all its gory detail.

I did. And we'll get to the Adelaid Crows, So I don't want to lose. I don't want to sleep on them. They were just superb Adelaide almost as big a story, but it was. It was all the things that everyone spoken about. It was a lack of real pressure. I mean, if you were able to sit the Adelaid Crows boys down and got the lasser truth around them, I'd suggest it wasn't a real hard afternoon at the MCG they took more than sixty uncontested marks. I mean, fore warned is forearmed. You know Marry Davis has gone there from Brisbane. You know that they're trying to possess the footy. They got great kickers, yet they couldn't close that down, They couldn't keep it in their half. They got absolutely mangled in their defensive fifty against the like a red hot Adelaide side. So and they've got injuries that are continuing to mount. So Brad's going to be here, we'll discuss it in greater detail and put the questions directly to him. But I'm not quite sure where they're at.

So what's fundamentally undermining their game at the moment.

Well, I think their skill level as much as anything else. I know, the defense is set up and the way they defend the full ground, you can't do anything. And if you haven't got a level of skill that, like, what's that it's just given the ball up and saying I'm not involved in this trap. He's the ruckman. He's gone down from full forard. What does he reckons? I reckon he's kicking to At that stage, you dribble the ball along the ground. You can't execute a simple handball. It's just you know this. It was a bit embarrassing in the end, and then you can add all the pressure and structure and the inability to defend on the back of it, and it adds up to a pretty disastrous kind of a day. But I was taken by how missy they were and how untidy they were against the side that were the exact opposite.

It's not all talent for talent, but that equation gave you the issues around the list. So this is layer. There's the hearing, the now, and then there's the overall, which I think Essendon understands probably ahead of anybody else. And this is the These are well worn conversations, but this is the price of trading away three years worth of draft picks and then missing with the high picks that have come thereafter. And they're players who are still toiling away, trying, but they're not going to live up to the lofty billing. And when you have those picks inside ten, you have to hit. And so this is the Matt Rosa document from October last year, which is why the coach's contract was brought into line. There is a three year project to a massive occurent. They have a major talent deficit which can only be addressed through high end drafts.

So what are they? What are they right now?

They're in full blown rebuild.

Right, so they are for Essdon supporters sitting at home, you are in for a tough couple of years.

Yeah, the toughest years are now, which I hadn't had.

That's good for that blowing in and yeah, well this will be good to put the brad. I don't know whether the brad will can see that that's your take on it, but it would appear that that's you know, they're going to go to the draft. One of their best players was Isaac Kako on the second game, who played with the desired level of intensity in the desired level of skill. Zach Merritt was is as big a standout in that area as you could possibly see. But there's just on noth of them. Jarrett and if you're saying that it's full in your words, full blow and rebuild the Semessen fans sitting on the camps there that wouldn't like hearing that too much.

Yep. I don't feel like we were adequately braced for that, Adelaide, Adelaide. All right. So if you were gonna give me the schematic of a forward line and the different categories, do they fill the bill?

I'd love this forward line setup. I absolutely was drooling watching it. So you need big boppers, Sarah Jones calls them, You need the big boppers. So they got three Phil Thought Walker Fogginy. All right, so well served, Bill Thought looks ready to explode. You need the brats, call them the brats, so Rankin and Rochelle and the brats, the precocius talents that run around do what they want, and that's okay, But you need babysitters for brats. You get the brats will do their stuff, but they need someone in mind their backsides. And they've got keys, and they've got Neil Bullen. It's a great setup. New Woolen and keys go to work. They work so hard. Key's got his field. We kick four goals if I was watching Neil Bull and cover for these bags, Rank and Michelle play with the freedom. I still have to do what they have to do. And then those big boppers were doing what they did.

And then the.

Goalkicking aspects of this is what shouldn't be lost on anyone, Jared. This goal kicking ability is going to take them a long way. They will get much harder days than they had on Saturday afternoon. They had I don't know how many shots they kicked, twenty five goals, but they might only need sixteen, seventeen, eighteen shots and they can end up with fifteen goals. That's how good they are. And we've bem owned teams that have lost big finals over the last five ten years because they haven't taken their chances. One thing this team as amongst the whole heap of exciting prospects, is that they will take their chances.

So the pain of the rebuild, they now have a mass the talent.

I'm a believer. I know that's only two games and we want to see them tested more, but I'm a bit of a believer, all right.

The events of Rown two that shaped the agenda. Let's get to our coaches, shall we brad Scott's and Adam Use. So as it turns out, they are coaching the two youngest teams and the competition across the first two rounds. Brad Scott after the disaster of Saturday and Adam Muse as a one one split. The value of that first victory really shone through.

Mary.

You're just looking at me. I'm so Julia, You're the body that me