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FWC on Sport Nation guideMorris: “Broken” Bombers the worst team since Melbourne 2012/13
Tom Morris • July 6th, 2026 11:51 am
I watched Essendon play last week and yesterday. I was on the boundary for both games in my role for Channel 7.
I take no delight in saying this: The only comparison I have for this current team is the Mark Neeld era at Melbourne.
Having won one of their last 29 games, the Bombers appear devoid of answers, suffocated by lack of confidence, and gasping for an end of season breather in the first week of July.
Their plight is no fault of one person. They will tell you their youngsters are talented. They will say Brad Scott did the hard work. They will contend that the future is bright.
Unfortunately, none of these views allay the brutal reality - this club is currently broken.
Again - this is no one person's fault - but the accumulation of errors and misjudgements which have led to this sorry point.
Zach Merrett and Jordan Ridley have won six of the club’s last seven best and fairest awards. And they both want to leave.
Ben McKay appears permanently wounded by the demands of the game, and who can blame him? He’s played in just 26 wins from 118 matches since debuting in 2017.
Darcy Parish, Will Setterfield and Jye Caldwell look frustrated, and I saw Xavier Duursma give a teammate three consecutive sprays yesterday which were as vicious as they were audible.
Like many of his teammates, Duursma looked helpless, and let his younger teammate know about it.
One win from 29 matches whichever way you slice and dice it is a wretched position to be in.
They don’t know how to defend under a new system, they don’t know how to move the ball, and they sure as anything don’t know how to win.
To sit in front of Dean Solomon yesterday evening as he faced the media was to see a good man who is facing an excruciating seven weeks.
A coach who, as things currently stand, is best avoiding the top job for the time being.
Essendon is broken. They need a coach – whether it’s James Hird or another candidate – to pick up the pieces and put them back together. To unite behind a cause first and foremost.
The last coach who did this and succeeded? Paul Roos at Melbourne, after taking over from Mark Neeld.
Five years after Neeld was sacked, Melbourne made a preliminary final. That’s the Essendon timeline as a best case scenario.
Five years, it's a long haul.
The worst AFL team since Melbourne in 2012 and 2013.
