Essendon great Tim Watson has ripped his former club for failing to "sell" a successful culture to its players amid the news star defender Adam Saad wants out.
Saad, 26, shocked fans around the league when it was revealed yesterday he chose Carlton as his preferred destination for next season despite the club putting forward a lucrative four-year deal to keep him at Essendon.
After leaving the Gold Coast Suns at the end of 2017, Saad has played three seasons for the Bombers and finished the 2020 season third in the club's best and fairest.
When asked by fellow AFL great, Garry Lyon, why Saad made the decision to leave, Watson said the defender likely lost all hope in the direction of the club.
"I would say the simple and easy answer is he's lost faith in where the club is going," Watson told SEN Breakfast.
"They went after him, they spent two years trying to recruit him.
"He's been there for three years and after that period of time, he's decided, 'I'm not particularly liking what I'm seeing here. I don't particularly see a future where I will have success here.'
"That's' the club. Not the coach."
Watson took aim at the club's direction and criticised those in charge for not giving the players something to believe in.
"Initially you get emotional; 'They don't want to be here, they can nick off.' And then when you see how that group of players is growing that don't want to be there and the disgruntled number of players, you think: 'OK, well, what is the problem?' You've got to fix the problem," Watson added.
"The problem isn't that individuals have just decided 'now's a good time to go, I want to have success'. It's the fact that they haven't been able to sell to them that they're going to actually experience success at that football club.
"Fundamentally there are some things that are operating at that club that aren't necessarily what players believe is going to give them the success that they want to have."
The Bombers in season 2021 will hand the head coaching reins to assistant coach Ben Rutten who's set to take over from John Worsfold following a year where the club finished 13th on the AFL ladder.
Despite not criticising Worsfold for Essendon's disappointment on the field this season, Watson conceded the team's game plan was a real issue for the players.
Watson said assistant coaches Rutten and Blake Caracella confused players with the brand of footy being played as a number of individuals struggled to find their footing on the field.
"I'm not criticising John Worsfold here at all, because he came in at a really difficult time for a particular reason and it was a really tough time for him, but at some point they had to establish a way of playing a brand," Watson said.
"There was sort of a brand there that there was going to be this really fast, quick, run-gun type side – and then they've done an about-face and they've got other people in … and they said 'OK, no, we're going to be more like Richmond the way they play' and then there wasn't enough evidence of that.
"That confuses players. If you sit there and you say 'this is the grand plan, this is the way that we're going to deliver success, are you all on board?' And then you see a change.
"You like what Worsfold was doing then it changes to what they want to do when Ben Rutten arrives and then it changes again when Blake Caracella arrives and it's not really sold properly to them. They're thinking: 'Hang on a minute, where do I fit in all of this? I'm starting not to trust what they're saying to me.'"
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/bombers-great-tim-watson-rips-confused-club-amid-adam-saads-departure/418f60d6-c49f-4e39-9295-606a20bb44ed
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