Essendon legend Tim Watson says there is “no validity” to suggestions that there is a background push for Dean Solomon to replace Brad Scott as senior coach at the Bombers.

Caroline Wilson has indicated that premiership coach Kevin Sheedy and some of the club’s coterie groups could perhaps be agitating for a major change behind the scenes.

“Kevin Sheedy, we know he’s a big fan of Dean Solomon,” Wilson said on Channel 7’s Agenda Setters. “He coached him to premierships.

“The conversation around the Essendonians etcetera, the old boys, is that maybe Dean Solomon would make a great coach of the Essendon Football Club and he and James Hird would work well together.

“You just look at Brad Scott and you have to say at the moment the cards are stacked against him.”

In response to that suggestion, former club captain Watson insists he has not heard any of that talk.

Watson acknowledges that Sheedy wanted James Hird over Brad Scott in 2022, but isn’t sure he’s trying to stir up a significant coaching change right now.

He said on SEN Breakfast: “Are we moving into an area of reporting where we’re quoting a coterie group at a football club?

“Caro said the word around the Essendonians… there’s a lot of different stuff that comes out from coteries at football clubs. Most of it is just chatter and conversation around the team.

“I don’t know whether Kevin Sheedy is out there talking about Dean Solomon being the next coach of the Essendon Football Club. I haven’t heard him say that, so I don’t know whether that’s true or not.

“If it was then I think he’s got to temper where he says whatever it is that he’s saying about whoever it is that he wants to be the next coach. Because he has a really powerful voice at the Essendon Football Club.

“Our club has been destabilised over a long period of time, it has never been able to get itself on sure footing in any way. I think that he needs to understand that this would not be helping the situation.

“He can say whatever he likes but if you’re having conversations and you’re a powerful figure like Kevin Sheedy then you need to probably understand who you’re talking to, where you’re saying these things, and the destabilising effect that it might have on a football club.

“There’s a time and a place for everything. You can have your private conversations and do your power building behind the scenes, and I don’t know at administration level now if he has that power.

“He wanted James Hird to be coach when Brad Scott was hired. He got rolled on that which was something he disagreed with vehemently at the time and he’s been public about that.”

Watson again made it clear that he has heard nothing regarding a push for current assistant coach Solomon to push Scott out.

“I’m making a statement around what I’m hearing and I’m saying that from what I understand there is no validity, there is no evidence that at this point in time there is anybody trying to push Brad Scott out of the football club and put Dean Solomon in there,” he added.

The Dons were belted by Hawthorn by 62 points in Round 1. They next meet Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

Watson also spoke of the latest multi-year contract offered to Zach Merrett by the club.

AFL Media’s Cal Twomey says the Bombers have tabled improved terms on the current deal which runs until the end of 2027, just months after he tried to leave for Hawthorn.

“The question that he needs to answer is whether or not he wants to commit beyond that period of time and whether or not he’ll still be in search of maybe being part of a successful team,” Watson said of the former captain.

“I don’t think you have to have a crystal ball to look at where Essendon are at right now and believe that it’s not going to be a premiership within the next five years.

“He’s got to make that decision. At that point he will not be able to command the money he might have been able to command with a deal to Hawthorn at the end of last year.

“He’s going to have to weigh this up. Does he want to ultimately experience team success or is the money side of things and the longevity of a contract going to be more attractive to him right now?

“He’ll be 32, going on 33 at the end of this (reported) contract. It’s very unlikely that anybody is going to give him a massive deal at that stage.”

Watson added: “I wouldn’t deny him, at that point of time, if he comes out at the end of his contract and he says, ‘I’ve done all I can as an Essendon player, this is what I want to do in the twilight of my career, this is what I would be prepared to do’.

“Then I’m not going to hold that against him.

“But if you do still harbour the idea of playing in a premiership, and I’m sure he probably does, then you don’t sign the extension and throw yourself out into the unknown to try and find a new home knowing you won’t be offered the same amount of money.”