Besieged Essendon coach Brad Scott has 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 a crunch Round 3 clash against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, 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.
The Bombers will make at least one change for Saturday night, with defender Mason Redman to miss up to eight weeks with a knee injury.
Scott admitted he's not one to drop an experienced, senior player to make statement, before flagging defender Jacob Farrow is in the frame for his AFL debut.
"I've never been a big believer in making statements at selection," Scott said. "You challenge players to respond, and they either do or they don't.
"I don't make knee-jerk reactions, players know they've got to give the effort that's required. I'm pretty keen to give those players the opportunity to respond."
