“Cower in the corner”: Dons sick of being belted around

Essendon players are sick of being belted around.

That is according to Mathew Inness, the club’s high performance boss, who says the Bombers are over being at the bottom and ‘cowering in the corner’.

The Dons claimed the wooden spoon after just two wins in 2026 with their subpar form leading to the sacking of Brad Scott and subsequent hiring of Mark McVeigh as senior coach.

Inness joined the club from West Coast just over 12 months ago and has seen in that short time just how serious those in red and black are about improving.

“I’ve been there for 12 months, and I guess the thing I noticed last year is they are sick of being belted around,” Inness said on SEN Summer Run.

“There was a stage there where everyone was coming for them. When you’ve been belted around for a long period of time I guess you get sick of that.

“It’s like a dog that gets kicked when you get home. They start to cower in the corner a bit.

“But they’re sick of it. They want to try and get better, they’ve worked really hard in the off-season, they’ve come back, and they feel like it’s a fresh start.”

Inness spoke of the desire of Essendon’s youthful group, along with the more experienced leaders, to shake the tag of under-performers and enter an era of success.

“The young players are really driven to get better. The thing I was struck by with the senior players is they are self-sufficient,” Inness added.

“When I started this time last year they were self-sufficient and they do want to work really hard, so there’s no issue from that point of view.

“They just haven’t had success for a period of time. You need role models there that have had success for a period to try and show you how to do things.

“I think that is what the club is doing with bringing in people from successful clubs to try and help these people who want to get better. They do work really hard and their intent is trying to get better, it’s just the fact there’s been no success for a period of time these players have been there.”

The first-to-fourth-year Dons hit the track earlier this week with exciting key forward Nate Caddy using his elite running capacity to win a key pre-season fitness test.

That fact has led to questions around the fitness levels of Essendon’s midfield, but Inness was quick to jump to the defence of the on-ball group, many of whom have not yet started pre-season training.

“Nate is an outstanding athlete. This is my 16th year in the AFL and Nate is as good an aerobic athlete as I’ve seen in that time,” he said.

“(West Coast’s) Reuben Ginbey is another one who is an absolute beast. But Nate is as good as there is going around. He is an exceptional athlete.

“The part with the midfield is that most of our midfielders are in that five (year) plus group. The testing we did was just the one to four (year) group.

“In that one to four group we had Dyson Sharp, Sullivan Robey is still not running yet so didn’t do the test. Guys like Sam Durham and Jye Caldwell are in the five-plus group so they’ll do their test in a week and a half.”

Listen to the full chat with Inness below: