‘As helpless as I’ve felt’: Coaches explain bench blackout ‘chaos’ that sparked ‘old school’ tweak

Essendon coach Brad Scott claims he was “as helpless as I’ve felt in a quarter” after wet weather sparked tech chaos on the MCG interchange bench, with both the Bombers and Collingwood left without crucial information during the Anzac Day blockbuster.

After a gritty second-quarter comeback, the Bombers pinched the lead from Collingwood by kicking the first two goals of the third term – only for the Magpies to hit back with five of the next six goals to set up the 41-point win.

But as Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph detailed during Fox Footy’s broadcast, there was “chaos down here for most of the third quarter” off the field as rain “sparked out the communications”.

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Ralph said the temporary communications blackout led to AFL football operations general manager Laura Kane granting both clubs permission to use an extra two mobile devices in the coaches box per club while the issue was resolved.

“I’ve spoken to the AFL bench official here and they’re in uncharted territory,” Ralph said during the fourth term.

“Normally, of course, given the integrity concerns they’re not allowed to do that (use mobile phones). But that was granted to them.

Both teams were impacted by a comms blackout. Source: FOX SPORTS

“It’s a significant story here.”

Communication for both teams was restored by the start of the fourth quarter, with the AFL adamant neither side had an unfair advantage.

“Basically some of the power was working, some of their laptops were working, but certainly none of the screens – in terms of their stats and vision,” Ralph said.

“As it was coming in and out, neither of the teams really knew what was going on. But thankfully, as the AFL says, they are sure that both teams mostly had equal access to at least those phones, which allows them to get in touch from the boxes to the benches.”

Melbourne champion Garry Lyon was left stunned by Ralph’s report.

Ralphy breaks down MCG Anzac Day outage | 01:19

“Wow … I’m not sure how much of a bearing it has, but it certainly doesn’t help,” Lyon said.

“That is another really good point, because they want to see head knocks and concussion and also for other injuries. It’s a massive inconvenience.”

Addressing reporters post-game, Scott — who coached from the box on Friday — confirmed his communication with the bench was down for “pretty much the whole third quarter intermittently”.

“It was pretty old school. We just had to get the mobile phones out,” Scott said.

“It was pretty frustrating. That’s as helpless as I’ve felt in a quarter of footy when we can’t communicate to the bench. Every time I went to go down to the bench, they said ‘it’s back on’ – and then they came back off. We couldn’t work out what was going on, but from what I hear we weren’t the only ones.”

Craig McRae, Senior Coach of the Magpies and Nick Daicos. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images Source: Getty Images

Despite both teams having the same limited communication access during the third quarter, Scott suggested the wisdom and experience of Collingwood’s players paid dividends.

“I think it has a lot (of impact) – and full credit to Collingwood’s experience,” Scott said. “I don’t know how many Anzac Day’s this is for Pendles, but he just looks really like he did when he first came in as an 18, 19-year-old – very composed.”

Scott later added: “I wouldn’t make too much of a deal of it, personally. It sounded like it was both teams. Certainly no excuses, that’s for sure.”

Collingwood coach Craig McRae, who was on the bench for the whole match, urged his coaching group to remain relaxed during the chaotic time.

“I just said ‘be calm’,” McRae told reporters post-game.

How Daicos bros slice and dice Dons | 02:19

“When you’ve got a group that’s performing, you’ve got to get out of the way sometimes. I know the great Leigh Matthews taught me way back. There’s a big ‘snowball’, he used to call it, going down the hill and picking up more momentum – well get out of the way of it.

“I’ve certainly been trusting these guys, they know what to do in the moments. So when that happened, I said: ‘Just relax, we’re OK, we’ve got this, let the players be.’

“We give them the keys, they drive the car really well at the moment.”

McRae was told of Scott’s envy towards Collingwood’s experience and is pleased the Magpies’ raft of veterans are finally being spun as a positive.

“It’s nice to speak of our experience as a good thing, it certainly helps, it’s Pendles’ 18th Anzac Day, that’s got to help somewhere, doesn’t it?” he laughed.

“We had six that hadn’t played, so it’s all good new experiences and we’re looking for more shared experiences – we’re on a journey here.”

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