Brad Johnson’s Right: Essendon Are Sleeping On A Pies Star

Essendon are stumbling round like a bloke who’s lost his keys at three in the morning, and apparently the answer’s been standing right in front of them the whole time. Brad Johnson’s come out and said it plain as day – the Bombers should be looking at a Collingwood midfielder for their next coaching gig.

Carn the Pies. Even our old enemies from the Whitten Oval reckon we’ve got the goods.

What Did Johnson Actually Say?

Johnno, fresh off watching his Bulldogs cop it on Anzac Day, basically said Essendon are missing one obvious name off their list. He didn’t need to spell it out much further – anyone who watches our midfield brigade work each week knows exactly who he’s talking about.

Now I’m not going to pretend I’m not chuffed. When a Bulldogs legend, a bloke with 364 games and a Coleman-adjacent reputation for reading the piece, starts telling Essendon to look at one of our blokes, you sit up and take notice. That’s not homer talk. That’s a genuine footy brain making a genuine footy point.

Why It Actually Stacks Up

Think about what clubs want in a coach these days. They want someone who understands stoppage craft, who can read a game from the inside, who commands respect in the rooms without having to scream the walls down. That’s exactly the profile we’re talking about here.

This bloke’s been the on-field general for us for years. He sets the tempo, he talks to teammates mid-quarter like he’s already coaching them, and honestly half the vision you see of him during breaks in play looks like he’s drawing up a whiteboard in his head. You can’t teach that instinct. Either you’ve got it or you don’t, and he’s clearly got it in spades.

• Elite ball-use under pressure, week after week
• Leadership that doesn’t need a captaincy armband to be obvious
• Respected by opposition players and coaches alike
• Already thinks the game like a coach thinks it, not like a player just chasing possessions

Essendon’s Coaching Search Has Been A Circus

Let’s be honest about the Bombers’ situation for a sec. It’s been one name floated after another, leaks here, denials there, footy department politics splashed all over the back pages. It’s been messier than a Friday night pie at the footy.

Maybe that’s exactly why a fresh outside voice like Johnson’s carries weight. He’s not tangled up in the politics. He’s just watching footy with an expert eye and calling it how he sees it. And what he sees is a genuine coaching talent playing right under everyone’s nose in the Collingwood midfield.

Essendon fans should be asking themselves why their own list management and recruitment people haven’t been shouting this from the rooftops already. Have they even looked past the usual suspects? Or are they just recycling the same five names every footy journo’s mate mentions on a Thursday night panel show?

What This Means For Us At Collingwood

Here’s where it gets interesting for us Pies supporters. Do we want to see one of our own get poached off to coach a rival club, even a cross-town one we flogged on Anzac Day? Course not, not really. But you’d be lying if you said there wasn’t a little bit of pride attached to it too.

It means the rest of the competition is watching our midfield and seeing more than just a bloke winning the footy. They’re seeing a leader. They’re seeing someone whose footy IQ is being recognised outside the four walls of the Holden Centre. That’s a compliment to our whole program, not just the player in question.

Course, if Essendon come knocking, that’s a conversation for down the track. Contracts, timing, whether the player himself even wants to step away from still playing at the top level – that’s all up in the air. But the fact his name’s even being floated by a genuine great of the game should tell you everything about where his reputation sits.

The Bigger Picture On Player-Turned-Coaches

We’ve seen it work before. Blokes who were still playing good footy stepping into development roles, then assistant gigs, then eventually the big chair. It’s not a new pathway, but it does require a special type of player – one who’s already thinking two steps ahead of the contest, not just reacting to it.

From what I’ve watched every week, this bloke ticks that box better than most active players in the comp right now. He should of been getting more mainstream coaching buzz already if you ask me, but sometimes it takes an outsider like Johnson to say the quiet part out loud.

Final Word From The Outer

Look, I’ll always barrack for us to keep every bit of talent we can at Collingwood, on field and eventually in the coaches box too. But you can’t ignore when a legend of the game, from a rival club no less, goes out of his way to praise one of ours.

It’s definately not a bad problem to have. Other clubs wishing they had what we’ve got in our midfield stocks? That’s the kind of headline every Pies fan should be smiling about this week.

Whether Essendon actually pull the trigger and go down this path is a whole different question, and knowing the Bombers’ recent history with big decisions, who really knows what happens next. But Johnson’s endorsement says plenty about the respect our midfield brigade commands right across the competition.

Carn the Pies – and maybe, just maybe, carn a future coaching career too, wherever it ends up.