Tim Watson denies reports he doesn’t speak to James Hird

Tim Watson has hit back at reports that he and James Hird don’t speak, saying he has “no ill-feeling” towards the Bombers legend.

Tim Watson has expanded on recent reports about his strained relationship with James Hird, saying he holds no ill-will towards the former Bombers coach but that the pair ‘don’t have a relationship’.

Watson also insisted he had nothing but the best interests of the Essendon Football Club in mind when he chose not to endorse Hird for the vacant coaching role at the end of last year.

The Herald Sun reported earlier this month that Hird and Watson haven’t been on speaking terms since Watson’s son Jobe was stripped of the 2012 Brownlow Medal for his role in the supplements saga.

Watson and Hird played together in Essendon’s 1993 premiership side, and were both named in Essendon’s Team of the Century in 1997.

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The Herald Sun’s report stated it was now “the coldest of cold wars between the pair” and their relationship was “right now at least beyond repair”.

Speaking on SEN as part of his new podcast series, Watson was asked if their relationship was irreparable.

“I don’t have any ill-feeling towards James Hird. Absolutely none,” Watson said.

“I’ve been in his company a number of times and we had a 1993 premiership lunch last year and he was there.”

However, Watson stopped short of saying he and Hird were friendly, saying “we don’t have a relationship.”

“We’re not best friends and we were friendlier back in the day, but this whole thing happened, and I’ve reached out to him, I’ve reached out to Bomber (Mark Thompson, former Essendon coach) and I understand people are moving through this emotionally and mentally in their own time and in their own way and I respect that.”

Tim Watson (centre) and James Hird (far left) won the 1993 premiership together.

He insisted that his remarks about Hird’s potential reappointment as Essendon coach had nothing to do with his personal relationship with Hird, and everything to do with the direction he thinks the Essendon Football Club should go in.

“When you have been a teammate of somebody and then you have to make a comment around something they might be doing because you hold a position in the media and you’ve got to have an opinion on these things, my opinion about him being the next coach of Essendon had nothing to do with what happened in that ASADA period,” Watson said.

“It had nothing to do with that.

“I just didn’t think he was the right person for this time and the club needed to move forward and it was as simple as that.”

Tim Watson’s son Jobe (R) won the 2012 Brownlow Medal but was retrospectively stripped of the biggest award in the game after the supplements saga.

Asked by co-host Garry Lyon whether Essendon needed to move past their past heroes and historical club figures that have been raised up as the solution to the club’s 19-year-long streak without a finals victory, Watson said: “Yeah, yeah, I do.”

“There was a lot of that, that we ‘just need to get Essendon people back’, and my answer to that was always no, no you don’t,” he said.

“You need to always be conscious of the history and culture of your football club and those that represented your football club, but you always need to make the best decisions for your football club going forward.

“They may include Essendon people, but they may not include Essendon people.

“If you go back and look at the last successful period that Essendon had, it was getting Kevin Sheedy, a former Richmond person into the football club, and he changed the football club.”