Essendon has handed Jacob Farrow an AFL debut, with the first-year defender to line up for the Bombers in their highly anticipated Round 3 match-up against North Melbourne on Saturday night.
Farrow becomes the fourth player to debut for the Dons in 2026, joining Dyson Sharp, Max Kondogiannis, and Hussien El Achkar, and the 19th to see senior action since the start of 2025.
"It's honestly a dream come true. The boys all got around me in the gym when Scotty announced it and it all felt pretty surreal. I'm just so excited to get out there on Saturday night," Farrow said.
"Telling Mum and Dad was really special. Mum was in tears straight away - they were both just super happy for me.
"I'm really proud to make it to this point after a big couple of years. To be picked up by such a good Club and connect with the boys straight away, and now get the chance to run out with them at Marvel - it's a pretty cool thing.
"To run out under the banner in the Essendon kit in front of the fans, it's going to be unbelievable. I can't wait."
Farrow was selected by Essendon at pick 10 is last year's National Draft.
The 18-year-old hit the ground running in his first VFL outing last week against Geelong last week, tallying 31 disposals at 93 per cent efficiency, and he kicked a goal for good measure.
The news comes after besieged Essendon coach Brad Scott called on his club's fans to stick fat in the face of adversity.
The Bombers have made a shocking start to the season, dropping its two games by 62 and 63 points respectively.
The two losses to begin 2026 have extended the Dons' losing streak to 15 games, with their last win coming in May last year, when they beat the Tigers in Round 12, and the'ye not won a final since 2004.
Ahead of the clash against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, Scott said he has empathy for the club's long-suffering fans, before asking them to stay the course.
"Being an Essendon fan the last 25 years has been unbelievably difficult," Scott said.
"All I can assure everyone is that I'm extremely optimistic about what we're doing. We made really hard short-terms decisions for the medium-to-long-term… let's see it through."
Essendon's 2026 list is ranked 16th in both experience (59.6 games) and age (23.9 years old), with its oldest player being 30-year-old Zach Merrett.
Scott is a firm believer in the club's strategy of investing in youth, saying he is confident it will pay dividends in time.
"This is why every organisation has got a strategy. This is why you design a strategy and you prosecute the opportunities and the threats. The threat in the short-term for us was that we could be vulnerable. We could be vulnerable to playing too many young players at the same time," Scott said.
"We're already a young list. We're getting younger.
"We chose deliberately not to bring older players to support the young players. We've got young players supporting our young players, at the moment.
"That's a risk.
"I wouldn't be doing this if I couldn't see a clear path to the medium-long term of what this team is going to look like.
"I've never been more optimistic about that and mainly that's built on the character of this playing group.
"We'll have short-term fluctuations, we have really bad games, we'll have really bad quarters, but if I'm right, with the character of this group, they're made of the right stuff."
Scott also addressed the bizarre comments he made during his press conference, following the hammering in Adelaide by the Crows.
Scott, on Sunday, conceded his side is "demoralised" just two games into the season and singled out forward Nate Caddy, after the young gun squandered a simple goal opportunity from point-blank range.
"You've got to think about who I'm talking to. The majority, in a post-game press conference, I'm talking to the players. I've already spoken to the players, post-game," Scott said.
"I'm speaking to the players, first and foremost, and our fans, after that.
"In terms of Nate Caddy and selfishness, I spoke to Nate at half-time, I spoke to Nate post-game, I spoke to the players post-game, then I did a press conference, so they are crystal clear as to what I'm talking about.
"For everyone else, and I'm not always going to do this, if you make a mistake and you get demoralised by it, and more importantly, if the rest of the team get demoralised by it, you're being selfish, because you're thinking about yourself and not the team. Be disappointed, but get back into the contest. That's part of the area of growth for us as a team.
"It's really hard at the moment. But character is revealed through adversity and when you can fight through those situations, you become more resilient over time."
Scott went on to praise Caddy for his perseverance in the Adelaide horror show.
"What Nate Caddy did in the second half, and we talked about this as a group, at the game, post-game and in review… the players voted for Cads as their player of the week; not because of his four goals in the second half, but because of his response to what he said in his words was an embarrassing moment," Scott said.
