Jobe Watson: Essendon, don’t expect one man to be the messiah

Former Essendon captain Jobe Watson doesn’t expect one person to come in and fix the Bombers’ problems after Brad Scott was sacked by the club on Tuesday morning.

Watson, who is perhaps Essendon’s most vaunted leader across the last two decades, thinks that the club mustn’t expect the next coach to be a messiah who can turn things around on their own.

If Watson himself was placed in charge of selecting Scott’s replacement, he’d be looking to first identify exactly what the club is looking for in a coach, and then going after someone with those attributes.

After finding the right person for the job, the next task would be giving them the support they need, particularly in areas where they mightn’t be as strong.

“The skill set is identifying what it is that the attributes are that you're looking for, and how they fit into the system and the environment that you are looking to create,” Watson said on SEN’s The Rabbit Hole.

“That’s the profile of the organisation and how they fit into that, how they amplify their skill set and cover their weaknesses.

“There's no perfect coach. It's like there's no perfect player that walks into the AFL system. 

“Guys can have an enormous amount of practice and training, but there's still a work in progress, so it's multiple parts.

“And the idea that someone, one person, comes in and they’re the answer to all the problems that are there is totally ridiculous.”

With that in mind, Watson hopes that the club runs a thorough process, where both potential coaches and those evaluating them are assessed from all angles.

The Dons only recently asked their former CEO Craig Vozzo to come in as a consultant, but Watson would like to see a clear structure with who is making the big decisions, while getting those with previous experience of hiring successful coaches appointed by the club.

“Well, I think that they need to run a process,” Watson said.

“But the part that I always talk about and listen to, you know, I'm an avid fan of Michael Lombardi and his processes and what he talks about. 

“The thing that resonates most with me is you need to evaluate the evaluators. 

“If someone says he's a really smart guy or he's really good at his job, the follow-up question is, ‘Well, give me some examples of what he does really well’, something that backs up that statement.

“I think that that's probably what is frustrating as an Essendon supporter. This mess of trying to get the previous CEO to come in and give advice, and it just doesn't look like there's a lot of structure going on with who's making the decisions.

“I'd be looking at going to people that I know have made really smart decisions in this space, and I'd be seeking them to run a process for me. That is my answer.”

Listen to Jobe's full chat on The Rabbit Hole with Garry Lyon and Tim Watson.