Brad Scott says he won’t get involved in what was discussed at board level following Kevin Sheedy’s explosive revelations earlier on Friday.
Essendon president Dave Barham said in an email to members Scott was chosen by the Bombers’ coaching subcommittee on Thursday afternoon and the decision was then “fully endorsed” by the club’s board shortly after.
But club great Sheedy – who was appointed to the club’s board in 2020 – broke ranks on Friday morning when declaring to the Herald Sun that he voted for James Hird to be the club’s next coach.
“I am extremely disappointed that the comment from my club was that it was fully endorsed, when in fact I voted for James Hird to be the coach of Essendon,’’ Sheedy said.
He said he was the only board member to vote for Hird, with the rest endorsing Scott.
Hird and Melbourne assistant Adem Yze were seen as the frontrunners for the role while Scott was unable to take part in Essendon’s process due to being the AFL’s GM of football, but former Roos coach Scott was announced on Thursday despite formally entering the process earlier that day.
Despite the unstable nature of Sheedy’s comments which go against the club’s view, Scott remains unfazed.
“I don’t think it’s really anything for me to get involved in. The reality is there was an independent panel appointed to run a rigorous process to select the coach they felt was the best fit for Essendon,” he told SEN’s The Run Home.
“They did that, they presented to the board and the board ratified it. That’s all I’m concerned about.
“It’s certainly not for me to talk about and I don’t know what the board discussed. All I know is that there was a recommendation made to the board and the board ratified that call, so it’s certainly not for me to talk about discussions at board level.”
Meanwhile, AFL Media’s Damian Barrett believes Sheedy’s comments will see him forced off the club board.
The latest outburst comes after Sheedy publicly declared North Melbourne would be a good fit for Alastair Clarkson while Essendon was actively pursuing the four-time premiership coach, comments believed to have played a part in Clarkson’s final decision.
“He’s gone public with his vote as a board member being for James Hird and not Brad Scott, for me, it’s the kind of action that Brad Scott wanted to avoid in going to the Essendon footy club,” he told AFL Trade Radio’s The Late Trade.
“This is not the way boardrooms operate in any form of business let alone football clubs, I would expect that at some stage today, and if not today within the next 24 hours, he will be asked to resign from the board because you cannot tolerate this type of public utterances when you are trying to be a united football club”
“He effectively was part of the David Barham crew that rolled the previous chairperson, Paul Brasher, that was a board meeting on the weekend of round 22, before the final round, he then obviously was part of the board decision to sack Ben Rutten”
“He wasn’t part of the subcommittee that went part of the whole process anyway so he clearly he predetermined James Hird, regardless of outcome of process, was going to be his choice”
“It was very political and pointed that he wasn’t (part of the coach selection committee) in my eyes… because of the allegiance he had and the preconceived notion that in his eyes it had to be James Hird.”
Scott coached 211 games at North Melbourne before finishing up in 2019 with a win/loss record better than 50 per cent.