By Jake Niall and Sam McClure
James Hird has put up his hand to coach Essendon and has already been interviewed by the Bombers, well-placed industry sources confirmed on Wednesday.
Hird was interviewed on the same day as Melbourne assistant Adem Yze and St Kilda assistant Brendon Lade, by a coaching selection panel featuring former Carlton premiership coach Robert Walls and former Hawthorn star Jordan Lewis.
Brad Scott has been on the radar but hasn’t put up his hand yet.
A number of candidates have made themselves unavailable, including Ross Lyon and Leon Cameron, but the club is determined to have a comprehensive process and an open mind about who they select to replace Ben Rutten.
Former NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn is assisting the panel in the coach search, which is headed by football boss Josh Mahoney. Four-time premiership Hawk Lewis, Walls, and netball coach Simone McKinnis are also part of the panel, along with club director Dorothy Hisgrove.
While the panel has interviewed Hird, Yze and Lade, well-placed sources believe Scott is still the wildcard, if he chooses to pursue the job.
People close to Scott believe the former North Melbourne coach, who took the Kangaroos to consecutive preliminary finals, could still be convinced to entertain an offer from Essendon.
James Hird and Dean Solomon speak with then Giants interim coach Mark McVeigh during the 2022 season.Credit: Getty Images
Hird has been working part-time as an assistant coach at Greater Western Sydney this year but has been otherwise out of the game since he left Essendon late in 2015, before the suspension of 34 players after the injection scandal.
Hird had worked as an assistant under his former teammate Mark McVeigh and with another ex-Bomber Dean Solomon at the Giants when McVeigh was made caretaker coach following the exit of Leon Cameron mid-season.
While he had not sought a coaching role until the Essendon job became available, Hird had taken small steps back towards involvement in the AFL system, having initially joined GWS this year in a part-time role where he worked on leadership with the players.
Hird has had multiple conversations with AFL boss Gillon McLachlan in the past few years, with McLachlan saying he had no issue with Hird returning to the game. If McLachlan had an objection or issue, there is little doubt that Hird would not have been hired by GWS.
In an episode of The Howie Games podcast recorded in late July, before Essendon’s board upheaval and the club parting with Rutten, Hird acknowledged a potential return to coaching wasn’t off the table.
“I was asked by the CEO of a footy club six weeks ago if I’d like to coach – not his club – but if I’d like to coach again,” Hird said, adding, “ I’d have to have family considerations to do it.
“I love the fact that you get in deeply and you work with young people to create something really, really special, and you create a great team environment.
“But I worked very hard over the last six years to create another business arm, and I’m 50 ... you go down that [coaching] path and that’s almost it. So, I’d have to think very carefully about the path that I take, and there has to be an opportunity too, obviously.”
During the interview, Hird claimed his greatest strength as a coach was the relationships he’d forged, and said his greatest weakness was trusting too much, including trusting two “bad people” during the fallout of the Bombers’ supplements saga.
“I really was a trusting, accepting person because nothing really bad to me had happened,” said Hird.
“We had two people there who were bad people - I don’t think they cheated, but that’s debatable ... I still don’t think players took the wrong thing. Players were put in a very compromising position, which I don’t think they shouldn’t have been put in.”
with Marnie Vinall
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