‘Going down the path of delusion’: Bombers headed for disaster
The football world has been left absolutely stunned by the Bombers’ big James Hird news — and the reaction has not been kind.
The Bombers are headed for disaster, footy commentators claim, with James Hird becoming a front-runner for the Essendon head coaching job.
The club legend was on Wednesday interviewed for the vacant coaching job as the club looks to move on from sacked coach Ben Rutten and its miserable 2022 season.
Hird, who last coached the Bombers in 2015, has officially put his hand up for the job and was one of four candidates interviewed by the club’s sub-committee on Wednesday, panel member Jordan Lewis confirmed on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Wednesday.
The coaching committee is made up of Bombers football boss Josh Mahoney, former Carlton coach Robert Walls, four-time premiership-winner Lewis, Melbourne Vixens netball coach Simone McKinnis, current board member Dorothy Hisgrove and former NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn.
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There has been fresh speculation on Thursday that Hird may have been given a “wink and a nudge” by the club that he is a serious candidate or even the preferred candidate.
Former Hawthorn and Carlton great Daniel Harford said on Thursday Bombers officials have left themselves with nowhere to turn after Hird’s highly-publicised potential return.
“I think it makes it very difficult for them not to give him the job now,” Harford, the coach of the Carlton AFLW team, said on RSN Breakfast.
“Considering his recent history, his recent mental health history as well, he wouldn’t put himself in the spotlight if he didn’t think he was half a chance.”
Former Channel 7 footy reporter Mark Stevens said Hird would not have put his hand up as a candidate unless he had been given a tip off by the club that he was a serious candidate.
Stevens said the battle for the position appears to be between Hird and Melbourne Demons assistant coach Adam Yze.
Former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott, Brendon Lade and ex-Adelaide coach Don Pyke have also been linked with the coaching process, while Leon Cameron and Ross Lyon have ruled themselves out.
The Bombers have also been linked with potential interest in Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley, despite the Power coach remaining under contract.
The reaction from the footy world to the news about Hird has not been kind to the Bombers.
Veteran AFL journalist Damian Barrett said “I just don’t get it” when asked about the Bombers potentially going back to Hird.
“Here we go again. The Essendon footy club heading down the path of delusion,” Barrett told the AFL Daily podcast.
“I’m not surprised because the club in question is the Essendon Football Club, which has got an adherence to the cult-like people who have entered its fray who have been successful.
“There’s been no one arguably more successful than James Hird’s time as a player at Essendon. But his time as a coach was a disgrace period in the context of the AFL, it was a disgrace period for Essendon, and everyone realises that except for some Essendon people.”
Hird was appointed Essendon’s coach at the end of 2010 and was stood down by the AFL for the 2014 season after the club’s supplements scandal.
The club was banned from the finals series while 34 past and present players were suspended for two years, resulting in 17 of them missing the 2016 season.
Hird returned to coach the Bombers in 2015 before resigning later that season.
He would be returning to a club that is in crisis following the departures of Rutten, CEO Xavier Campbell and former president Paul Brasher.
Essendon legend Tim Watson on Thursday said the club doesn’t need a saviour like Hird to turn the club around.
Watson said he’d be “more than surprised” if Hird ultimately returns to the club as head coach.
Watson said Hird was entitled to be given a chance to go through the application process.
Let’s say Essendon is broken, what would unite a club will be success,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.
“It doesn’t have to come from James Hird being the coach of the Essendon Football Club to unite Essendon. The club would’ve been united under Ben Rutten and John Worsfold had they been more successful.
“We don’t need a saviour to come back to the Essendon Football Club and unite the Essendon Football Club. We need somebody who’s able to put a plan of action in place that’s able to deliver success and to start to build a successful team again.”
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes said Hird shouldn’t be considered for the position for the simple reason that he hasn’t spent any time coaching recently outside of his part-time role with the Giants this season.
“I’m not sure the selection panel did the best thing for him by allowing him to put his hand up for the job when clearly – I can’t see a possible way Josh Mahoney, Jordan Lewis and Robert Walls and the others would be accepting of James Hird to coach Essendon again,” Cornes told SEN’s Whateley.
“There would be candidates far more suited to the job than James Hird. The other candidates have worked on their coaching.
“The big one for me isn’t necessarily the history of it, albeit that is the circus part of it, it’s more the nuts and bolts of what it takes to coach a footy team and how quickly the game has moved strategically, the management side of things, the new demographic of players coming through, managing the football club.
“To be out of it for that long, I know some would say he dipped his toe back into the water this year, but I would think the model for James Hird had to be the Michael Voss model.
“You coach, it doesn’t end the way you would have hoped, you go to another club, you run the midfield and the leadership department, then you manage the coaches as a director and are across all facets.
“James Hird hasn’t done the work, to put it bluntly.
“He hasn’t done the work to be a viable candidate for the Essendon coaching job. That’s nothing personal, that’s just the reality of it.
“I’m surprised they accepted a sit down with him and I don’t think it’s going to go too far.”
Hird has spent this year as an assistant at the Giants under Cameron and caretaker coach Mark McVeigh.
