Brad Scott has coined the phrase - ‘Essendon edge’.
He wants to see his Bombers side play on the edge by upping their aggression but using a balance to ensure they don’t step over the line.
The Bombers played right on the edge for large portions of their Round 1 win over Hawthorn and Scott was pushing the narrative this week ahead of their Round 2 clash with Sydney in order for it to continue.
“We’ve been very explicit that we want the Essendon edge,” Scott said this week.
“I think all Essendon people and people who follow our club for a long period of time know what an Essendon edge looks like.
“We want that, but we want to be totally in control of what we’re doing. I thought for the large part of the game we did that pretty well against Hawthorn.
“When you play an aggressive, contact, combative sport like AFL football, players play on the edge. We want that edge but we don’t want to go over the line either. We got that right at times on the weekend and we got that wrong at times.
“We’ll continue to find the line to what the Essendon edge looks like.”
In response to those words, club great Tim Watson believes it could be a ploy from Scott to further instil this aggressive idea into his players.
He is eager to see more of it, and although he acknowledges that the Dons did do it well against the Hawks, he wonders if they can maintain the rage for Scott.
“When I hear a coach say stuff like that, to me it means straight away that they’re putting their players on notice publicly,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.
“I like it. Now, I want to see it consistently because it hasn’t been a consistent theme of the way they’ve played.
“But for him to say that says to me, ‘Ok, well you have said to me as a group, we’ve talked about this, you need to play with more aggression and sustained aggression and competitiveness. Alright, let’s talk about it publicly because now I’m going out there and I’m going to tell everybody there’s this thing called the Essendon edge’.
“Everybody’s thinking what is this? When I watch them play are they going to be able to produce that?
“It was a good start (against Hawthorn). That’s what he’s talking about, ‘That’s where I want them to be’. Can they maintain that type of rage when they play?”
Co-host Garry Lyon added: “The thing is you can’t fake toughness.”
Watson replied: “You can’t. Every fan can see through that.”
Lyon concluded: “So he must have a confidence in the group that there is a bit of edge about them and you’re right, now they’ve got to bring it every week.”
The Bombers will be intent on adding a second win to their 2024 tally when they take on the high-flying 2-0 Swans at the SCG on Saturday night.
They could get gun midfielder Darcy Parish back after he missed Round 1 with a hamstring injury.