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The question all week has been who wants to coach Essendon?
No-one it seems but James Hird, the premiership skipper and club legend who last coached the club in 2015 after one of the most ignominious coaching tenures in the game’s history.
The 53-year-old spent Sunday afternoon under grey clouds at Port Melbourne coaching the Borough’s forwards as they kicked the final three goals of the match to run down the Tassie Devils and win by four points.
Footy people were watching on from different AFL clubs, most convinced the Essendon job was going to be Hird’s when next year rolled around.
Other potential candidates are ducking for cover.
Adam Simpson, Ken Hinkley and a flock of assistant coaches who seem happy turning lifelong ambitions to be a senior coach into lifelong ambitions to be a senior coach anywhere but Essendon while Hird is in the frame.
Hird’s good friend and premiership teammate Dean Solomon, who has taken the gig on as interim after Brad Scott was sacked on Tuesday with 18 months remaining on his contract, showed little enthusiasm for becoming coach full-time either.
He said he was too busy getting his head around coaching to worry about being a candidate.
That’s fair given he is one of three people who have gone from club director to bigger roles in 12 months.
Andrew Welsh is now club president, Tim Roberts club CEO and Solomon the coach, the only one of that trio who have done their job before. It’s just as well they have confidence in the club’s strategic direction. They decided it.
Welsh and Roberts were also part of the decision to move on Scott and the post-Scott era started on Sunday night against West Coast, not only without Scott but his loyal assistant Ben Jacobs who decided he didn’t want to coach Essendon any longer either, departing his role as midfield coach on Friday. Jacobs departure was symbolic, whether intended or not, as it gave the impression of a defeated crew escaping an invading army.
Post-match Solomon, who is known as a connector of people, said he wants the team to follow a new game plan (most interim coaches use the word tinker to describe their change but he and his players went with new) in his stint warming the seat. They will focus on the contest, team defence and he will swing his players around in different roles.
He began that second period as interim coach after average losses of 68.66 points in his three matches as Suns interim in 2017, by moving maligned defender Ben McKay forward. It was his first big move as Essendon senior coach. The key defender found himself in the rare position of not being near the ball for the first 10 minutes as West Coast recorded the first nine inside 50s.
The Bombers were kicking into a fierce breeze and then lost key forward Archer May to a dislocated shoulder after 10 minutes, adding the promising forward to an injury list that would overwhelm M.A.S.H. They only saved themselves from being scoreless in the opening quarter for the first time since 1986 with an important behind from Archer Day-Wicks in the final 30 seconds. Kevin Sheedy retained that record.
But the Bombers then fought and scrapped and drew within a point midway through the second quarter and for the first time in a long time, the breeze was at their back.
But then the same old problems that come with injuries and little depth and the lack of a defensive system that can only be developed with synergy emerged as the Eagles slammed on eight consecutive goals to stretch the margin to 53 points. Solomon admitted the team lost their composure.
At that point, the week’s question changed to who would want to coach Essendon?
Hird is a yes.
That leaves the Bombers with a huge decision because one elephant in the crowded room of opinions is whether he deserves another chance after the pain that came to the club as a result of the WADA decision to suspend 34 past and present Bombers for the 2016 season. On that question the room, both inside and outside Essendon, is divided.
He will deny the motivation is unfinished business. He sees himself as the man who can drag the Bombers from the doldrums they entered in 2005 and have been in before, during and since his time as coach. That is a huge challenge for anyone, as rebuilds are not for the faint-hearted. And Hird could never be described as that.
Is former Swans’ coach John Longmire? That remains unknown and until he answers either way he will remain a wildcard in this discussion as the premiership coach may have the gravitas to trump the Hird push given he was a senior coach for 14 years and took his team to the finals in 12.
The straight-talking Hawk, Luke Hodge, said on Channel Seven what most are thinking about Hird’s prospects: “When you have got backing from Sheedy, Michael Long I think you have got a fair chance [to get the job],” he said.
The great irony is that Essendon missed the chance to employ a favourite son as coach way back in 2009 when triple premiership coach and Bombers’ premiership player Damien Hardwick because his computer didn’t work.
Such concern about someone’s readiness for the job seems laughable now as a five goal breeze sits at Hird’s back in his tilt for the job.
The board are yet to rule his candidacy in or out.
Until then, each game will be merely a backdrop to the chaos which once again surrounded Essendon and their long-suffering, loyal and most of all devoted supporters this week.
Welsh thinks the club have been pushed around. That will happen no more, he said at Tuesday’s media conference.
The interesting question is who this club wants to push back on, and how as they navigate a tough period for the club.
The answer will determine their future more than their performances on the field in their remaining 11 matches of 2026.
“We will all lock in on what we need to do now,” Solomon said.
