Essendon champion James Hird opens up on how he won the 1996 Brownlow Medal
Essendon champion James Hird says he hit his playing peak in his Brownlow Medal winning year of 1996. He explains why he was unable to maintain that same level in the years that followed. YEAR OF THE DON
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It was the European backpacking adventure that helped produce one of the greatest individual seasons in Essendon's history.
It also helped James Hird win the 1996 Brownlow Medal.
Hird was coming off consecutive best-and-fairests in 1994 and 1995 when he was supported by Bombers officials – including coach Kevin Sheedy – in his desire to embark on his overseas trip to keep him fresh.
Hird, 22, and his partner Tania – who would later become his wife – left on a five-week experience he says was one of the most fulfilling of his life in late 1995.
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He trained as an athlete in the mornings in picturesque cities before exploring them as a tourist with Tania later in the day.
Speaking to the Herald Sun this week, Hird said the trip – which included passport stamps in Egypt, Israel, Italy, England, Spain, Austria, Germany and Belgium – not only helped to elevate his already strong fitness base but opened his mind to a world beyond football.
“The club gave me half of November and all of December off (in late 1995)," Hird said.
"Tania wasn't my wife at the time, but we went overseas backpacking in Europe.
"I think we started in Egypt and Israel then took off to the UK. There were train strikes throughout France and we had to catch buses throughout Spain.
"I was pretty disciplined. I trained in the mornings then we would get out in the afternoons.
"I came back as fresh as a daisy, having trained on my own. I really just did four or five weeks of training, and jumped into the (1996) season."
THE TEAM AROUND HIRD
Hird believes 1996 was the best individual season from his 253-game, 17-season career in red and black, though he rates the 1993 and 2000 premiership years higher from a team perspective.
It came immediately before the 1997 navicular injury that, for a time, threatened his career.
"After I broke my foot (in 1997) I was never able to get the strength in my legs or the consistency in training like I did (in 1993-96)," he recalled.
"The navicular meant I wasn't able to train as much, particularly with the leg weights.
"That 1996 year I felt physically better than I ever had.
"We had a guy called Loris Bertolacci (strength and fitness co-ordinator) who was big on the leg weights. For me, having skinny legs, it was something that gave me strength throughout the year.
"I felt like my contested marking, which was probably never a strength of mine, was the best it had been.
"It gave me another weapon against guys my own height and weight and when you were playing on bigger guys, you could always run them off their legs."
"Sheeds was great. You also had people like 'Choco' (Williams) who took a special interest in me, Danny Corcoran got me super fit, Loris helped out with the weights and we had David Wheadon with the tactical side.
"It was a really good mix."
The core of Sheedy’s football program was having the best people in their chosen field at the club, while ensuring the players developed as people as much as footballers.
"We didn't lose too many players at Essendon," Sheedy recounted. "We looked after the players.
"I hand-selected the (off-field) team around me. If you are going to be a long-term coach, you have to do that."
'NO ONE TAUGHT ELVIS TO WIGGLE HIS HIPS'
After Essendon's Round 8 win over the Western Bulldogs, Sheedy gave a hint of Hird's status.
"The guy's in a class of his own, isn't he?'' Sheedy told the media.
"You get scrubbers like electricians and plumbers doing the job around him."
As good as Essendon's team was at the time, he was only half joking.
He would say later that year Hird and Tim Watson were the greatest players he saw in his time at the club.
"It's probably him and Tim Watson in my time," he said. "Mobile, quick, run with the ball, play in most positions. They're very talented men."
Hird didn’t need much coaching, Sheedy maintained.
"I was called their coach, but very rarely did you coach them (players like Watson or Hird)," Sheedy said.
"All you have to do is point them in certain directions and keep them involved in the team, and that was the way it was with (legendary coach) Tommy (Hafey).
"Some coaches get carried away, but you have to remember, 'No one told Elvis Presley how to wiggle his hips'.
Gary O'Donnell, the Bombers' 1996 skipper, said Hird worked exceptionally hard on and off the field.
"There are no secrets in AFL football," O'Donnell said. "The great players have the talent, but they are also the blokes who work really hard. James was one of the betters ones in being able to prepare himself.
"He worked on his game better than anyone in his formative years and that's why he got to the top."
O'Donnell ranked Hird as one of the two most smartest ball-winners he had seen.
"James and Simon Black are the best two I've seen in being able to read where the ball is going," he said.
"The great players can read it, but James and Blacky just knew where the ball was going before everyone else.
"Whenever Hirdy got near the ball, he invariably got it. He had an insatiable desire.”
BECOMING A MIDFIELDER
The Round 6 draw with Sydney produced Hird’s first best-on-ground Brownlow effort of the year.
It came with a head-to-head clash with reigning Brownlow medallist Paul Kelly.
"It was one of the greatest contests I had in my career because Paul was a massive competitor," Hird recalled. "It was wet and muddy and you would get the ball but as soon as you did this bloke would just hit into you, and I’d try and do the same when he got the ball."
Hird played mainly as a forward until 1996 with occasional runs through the middle, but that changed after he broke a bone in his hand in Round 8.
It meant he had to watch from the Waverley Park dugout when the lights famously went out against St Kilda two weeks later.
"I remember thinking 'What the hell has happened?'," Hird said. "We were bunkered down in the change rooms not knowing the crowd was going a bit crazy outside, starting fires and pulling down the goalpost."
Incredibly, Hird was an inclusion on the Tuesday night when the AFL's longest match finally concluded.
He initially struggled to mark in his return, so the club used him on the ball more frequently.
"Up until then, my role had been mostly as a half forward, but when I came back, I was still recovering from surgery and couldn't really use my left hand.
"So for the next two to three weeks I played on the ball because you can't really play centre half forward if you have one and a half hands.
"That was probably where it started for me, playing in the centre square."
Hird kicked six goals in the Round 13 win over Hawthorn, which brought about some mirth from Williams, one of his mentors.
"Choco used always have a go at me, saying he kicked seven in a game (for Collingwood in 1984)," Hird said.
"He was so good for me and often took me aside for one-on-one work, teaching me a lot of my craft, especially contested marking.
"After that (Hawthorn) game, I remember he was laughing at me. He said: 'You still haven't got me, son. You only kicked six (goals)."
TAKING HOME CHARLIE
Essendon’s three-point win over the Bulldogs in Round 22 proved critical to Hird's Brownlow chances.
For the second time that year, he polled three votes against the Bulldogs.
It was enough for him to join Brisbane's Michael Voss on 21 votes to win the Brownlow – with North Melbourne's Corey McKernan missing out due to suspension, despite being on the same tally.
“If Mercs (Mark Mercuri) had missed that (late) goal, I reckon Chris Grant would have got it and won," Hird recalled. Grant finished on 20 votes, one behind Hird and Voss.
O'Donnell and Sheedy noted Hird's performance in the semi-final thrashing of West Coast, which followed an agonising one-point qualifying final loss to Brisbane.
Hird had 31 disposals and kicked four goals.
Elation soon turned to heartache when an injury-hit Essendon squandered a late lead against Sydney in the preliminary final, allowing Tony Lockett to boot the Swans into a Grand Final after the siren.
"We were one of the best teams at being able to run down the clock," O'Donnell said. "To be a few goals up with a few minutes to play, and to lose, was tough."
Sheedy said: "Take a look at our injury list from that game."
The in-game casualties included Dean Wallis (hamstring), Sean Wellman (bruised back), Sean Denham (shoulder), Matthew Lloyd (ruptured spleen), Darren Bewick (neck strain), Gavin Wanganeen (lacerated hand) and Damien Hardwick (bruised sternum).
Hird was also injured, suffering a cut eye after an incident with Andrew Dunkley which became the subject of an AFL investigation.
"To lose two finals by a point was hard to take," Hird said, even though the 2001 Grand Final loss to Brisbane hurts even more.
Two nights later, with a 'mouse' under his eye, Hird went to World Congress Centre hopeful, but not overly confident he could win the first Brownlow for an Essendon player since Gavin Wanganeen in 1993.
He was on 14 votes by the midway point, but a lack of votes in the mid-stretch meant he went out to the toilet and had a chat to a Channel 7 cameraman before being told to return late in the count.
His last three games reeled off two, two and three votes to see him draw level with Voss.
"We were like Siamese twins that week," Hird said of the connection with Voss.
It ended up a massive night, even if the medal wasn’t enough to gain admission to a Melbourne nightspot.
"We toured every Essendon supporters' group in Melbourne and I remember Gary O'Donnell said 'Why don't we go past Bobby McGees on the way home."
O'Donnell recalled: "We fronted up (at 3am) and (security) said 'You can't come in, it's Industry night'. I said, 'I'm sure everyone will be interested to see this bloke, he’s got a Brownlow hanging around his neck'.
"They said, 'Sorry!' So we hoped back into the cab and went home.
“Maybe it was become Hirdy was wearing a Tartan vest. "
Originally published as Essendon champion James Hird opens up on how he won the 1996 Brownlow Medal