From a respected deputy’s exit, to a favourite son’s return: Inside the unravelling of Scott’s authority

May 27, 2026 — 5:00am

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The first signs were subtle enough to miss from the outside.

A reshuffled coaching structure. A respected assistant departing. An old premiership teammate returning home. On paper, Essendon’s decision to appoint Dean Solomon as an assistant coach in late October last year looked like little more than a football club reconnecting with one of its own.

Inside the walls of Tullamarine, however, the move carried far greater significance.

By the time Solomon officially resigned from Essendon’s board to join Brad Scott’s coaching panel, some within football had already begun viewing the appointment as a moment that quietly altered the balance of power at the Bombers.

Not because Solomon lacked credentials. Far from it.

A member of Essendon’s 2000 premiership side, Solomon had spent more than a decade coaching at Fremantle and Gold Coast before later working part-time at GWS. He was respected, experienced and deeply connected to the club.

But the context made this different.

The appointment came shortly after highly regarded assistant Daniel Giansiracusa departed Essendon for Hawthorn, stripping Scott of one of the key members of his inner sanctum. Giansiracusa had become an increasingly important voice within the Bombers’ coaching structure and his exit created both a tactical and emotional void.

Essendon moved quickly to fill it.

“When looking to fill the vacant position within our coaching team, Brad [Scott], ‘Vozz’ [Craig Vozzo], Daniel [McPherson], and I were considering who is out there and the best available talent across the industry,” president Andrew Welsh said.

“When it was first raised to me about ‘Solly’ joining the coaching group, it made me consider what the best use for him at the club was.”

The line raised eyebrows in football circles.

Not because Solomon was unqualified, but because the club president had positioned himself so prominently inside a football department appointment process involving a sitting board member and former teammate.

Welsh and Solomon’s relationship goes back decades. They played together during Essendon’s most dominant modern era and have remained close long afterwards. In isolation, that meant little. Football is built on relationships.

Essendon’s president told me Brad Scott would be their next flag coach. Here’s what changed

But coaches are acutely sensitive to shifts in authority and influence around them, particularly at clubs under pressure.

And by the back half of 2025, pressure had........

© Brisbane Times