By Jon Pierik
AFL coaching legend Mick Malthouse and Essendon great Matthew Lloyd have declared James Hird should not be allowed to return to coach the Bombers because of his role in the supplements scandal, which tore the club apart.
Hird, 49, is weighing up whether to run for the vacant coaching role at Essendon after the sacking of Ben Rutten on Sunday.
The former Essendon premiership skipper coached the Bombers between 2011 to 2013 and 2015 but was suspended by the AFL for the 2014 campaign, having brought the game into disrepute through an injecting program run by disgraced biochemist Stephen Dank. This led to 34 players being suspended in 2016 for a season after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the World Anti-Doping Authority’s appeal.
Happier days: James Hird joins in the team song after a big win over Carlton early in his initial tenure as Essendon coach.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo
Hird returned as coach in 2015 but quit late in the season when the Bombers, having lost 10 of their last 11 games under his watch, slipped to 15th on the ladder.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has welcomed Hird back into the industry, and he has been an assistant coach to former Bombers teammate and Greater Western Sydney caretaker coach Mark McVeigh this season. However, despite Hird having a shrewd analytical mind, Lloyd - a premiership teammate of Hird’s - said the Bombers must look elsewhere for a new coach.
“Probably no, just because I think of what has gone on [previously] and I think that they need to start afresh,” Lloyd told the AFL website on Monday when asked whether he favoured a Hird return.
Lloyd had said over the weekend it was “too early” for the Bombers to consider a Hird comeback.
Malthouse, the three-time premiership coach who was critical of the Bombers in 2013 at the height of the scandal, was more blunt in his assessment of Hird.
“No, absolutely not. He’s been out of the game for a while, for a start-off ... but I just don’t think you can forget what took place several years ago,” Malthouse told Nine’s Today.
“Those sorts of things, they’re unforgivable, what happened at Essendon. I personally don’t think it would be a good move at all.”
Hird had 41 wins from his 85 games in charge but the supplements saga destroyed the era of success the Bombers were tracking towards.
The saga also cost the club millions of dollars, derailed and ended careers, led to skipper Jobe Watson having his Brownlow Medal rescinded and, in 2017, led to Hird being hospitalised and spending a month in a clinic.
Watson urged caution over the weekend when asked if the Bombers should pursue Hird.
Mark Thompson, Hird’s assistant at the time, and coach in 2016, has spoken repeatedly of the mental damage the saga has had on him.
However, new club president David Barham says the Bombers want an experienced coach, and Kevin Sheedy - the four-time Essendon premiership coach and now influential board member - is supportive of Hird.
Mick Malthouse says James Hird should not be allowed to return as Essendon coach; David Koch says the Bombers are “dreaming” if they think Ken Hinkley would entertain any offer.Credit: The Age
Those with senior coaching experience also include Leon Cameron, Ross Lyon and Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley, who has a year to run on his contract and has an uneasy relationship with club president David Koch. However, Koch said on Monday the Bombers were “dreaming” if they felt Hinkley would “go to a club like that in such turmoil”.
Experienced assistant Adem Yze, who had been in the running to replace Cameron at GWS, may also be under consideration. Bombers assistant Daniel Giansiracusa and former Bomber Dean Solomon also fit into the latter category.
Former Bomber Brendon Goddard, who attended Saturday night’s president’s function at the MCG, said it was “unlikely” Hird would return.
“They’ve made it clear yesterday after that board meeting, and the decision to sack Rutten, that they’re after an experienced coach - so that does narrow the actual candidates,” he said.
“What’s needed is time to do an external review, then add that to the internal review they’ve already had, and then make a really good decision and then go through an interview process with all the coaches they put on a shortlist. I think that needs to happen before names, like Hird in particular, get thrown around.”
Barham says he is an agent for change, and has begun plans to have an external review completed of his club, which has not won a final since 2004 and a flag since 2000. The review will include a detailed process to find the next coach.
Goddard, who was stand-in captain in 2016, said change other than just Rutten was needed for a club divided at several levels, including in the football department.
“It can’t only just be the coach. I’d expect, based on - after their external review in particular - that there’s probably more names to be pushed aside and heads to roll at Essendon.
“In this position, when a new board member takes over and makes strong statements, that David Barham has, that I think everyone’s on notice and everyone’s walking on eggshells. Their job’s not secure, regardless of their contract and situation.”
Chief executive Xavier Campbell has the full support of the board, Barham insisted.
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