Essendon CEO has guaranteed fans the club won’t deviate from its long-term strategy, despite a nightmare start to the season that has left the Bombers languishing near the bottom of the ladder.
Lifelong Bombers supporter Tim Roberts, who has moved from board member to chief executive at the start of this year, sat down with 7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary in a wide-ranging interview where no topic was off limits.
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Roberts admitted he’s sick of his club being the butt of jokes among footy fans.
“Fortunately, when I became the CEO, I was able to exit a lot of WhatsApp groups with my mates giving me a lot of grief,” Roberts told 7NEWS.
“We want people to be proud of the Essendon Football Club. Absolutely, I’m incredibly proud of this football club. That’s how I grew up and that drives us every day.”
The new CEO is backing the long-term plan he was part of writing as a board member, and crucially, coach Brad Scott, who has a contract through to 2027.
When asked if he could guarantee Scott would be there for Round 1, next year, Roberts was unequivocal.
“Yeah, look, Brad is part of this strategy, right? He’s totally aligned. Where I sit, absolutely Brad Scott’s going to be our coach,” Roberts said.
The Bombers’ next three games are against fellow bottom-four teams, raising questions about what happens if the club slides to 1-12.
But Roberts refused to engage in speculation about Scott’s tenure.
“Our focus at the moment is to continue to build and develop our players and that’s not going to happen overnight. So we set a strategy and we’re going to stick to it,” he told 7NEWS.
On star midfielder Zach Merrett, who last week hinted he would look around once more, Roberts remained optimistic.
“I listened to that. What I heard was Zach was happy at the Bombers. Zach’s really important to us. He’s contracted next year and, you know, I’d like to see Zach continuing to stay in the red and black,” Roberts said.
