New Essendon coach Brad Scott has dismissed comments from club legend Kevin Sheedy about his appointment, admitting that debate among board members is "healthy".
Scott's appointment on Friday was met with criticism from Sheedy, who revealed that he had put his support behind James Hird.
โI 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 to the Herald Sun.
โ'Now, I would've expected that to have been written, and that in the end the board actually won that vote.
Speaking to ABC Radio, Scott revealed the process behind his appointment, while confirming that it was important "vigorous debate" was had before important decisions.
"I think it's important to clarify that there's an independent panel appointed to drive the process, and I went through the exact same process as every other candidate, and that panel then made a recommendation to the board so that the board weren't part of this selection process," Scott said.
"The board simply ratified the decision that the independent panel came up with so I think it's actually very healthy that the board has debate.
"The board could have rejected the independent panel's recommendations, the new coach, so I think it's not for me to talk about board discussions, but I think it's really important that in any board that there's vigorous debate, and I think that happens and should happen with every important decision."
Scott also touched on Essendon's list heading into this year's trade period, admitting that the club needs to invest in the draft to build for the long-term.
"The facts are that we'll probably enter the 2023 season as the youngest list in the competition," Scott said.
"We're not interested in filling gaps. I made it very clear that if Essendon were interested in short term solutions, and at the expense of long term, top end talent, then I probably wasn't the right person to lead them.
"We're fully united in the view that we need to build this for the long term and to do that we need to invest in the draft and we need to get aggressive in trying to bring in top end talent, not necessarily in filling short term gaps."
