Bombers president Andrew Welsh has refused to rule out club champion James Hird as a coach contender, but insists he has no intention of resurrecting an “old Essendon” vibe in the wake of Brad Scott’s sacking.

The Bombers on Tuesday morning confirmed Scott had been removed from his position after three-and-a-half seasons in charge – and just one Bombers win from their past 24 AFL matches.

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Triple premiership Bomber Tim Watson, in the wake of Scott’s axing, suggested on SEN there was “a very, very strong push from a lot of people out there to get James back at Essendon coaching”.

One of Essendon’s greatest ever players, Hird coached Essendon for nearly four full seasons before his sacking late in 2015 with his Bombers 5-14. He didn’t coach the cub in 2014 as he served a 12-month AFL-imposed ban for his role in the controversial Essendon supplements program.

Hird is now 11 years removed from his Essendon resignation, having since briefly served at the Giants in 2022, and taken up a director of coaching role at Port Melbourne. There was a push for Hird to take over from Ben Rutten – board member Kevin Sheedy certainly wanted his former superstar back in the chair – before Scott landed the gig in September 2022.

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Asked directly if he’d spoken to Hird, Welsh said he hadn’t. But when asked if he intended to speak to Hird, Welsh told reporters: “We’re not ruling anyone in or anyone out of this.

“I’m sure that there’ll be a lot of people interested in this role. When we set the criteria for our next senior coach for what we believe is going to be the right characteristics, we will then move on from there to look at what that next senior coach is.”

One of Welsh and Hird’s former teammates, Dean Solomon, will serve as the club’s interim coach for the rest of the 2026 season.

Essendon interim coach Dean Solomon. Picture: Michael KleinSource: News Corp Australia

A long-time assistant coach with stints at the Dockers, Suns and Giants, Solomon went for the Bombers senior job four years ago that Scott eventually landed. He was elected to Essendon’s board in December 2024, stepped down abruptly in October 2025 – one month after his former teammate Andrew Welsh was appointed the club’s president – and joined the Bombers’ coaching panel.

Welsh said Solomon would be an “outstanding caretaker” coach.

Asked about Solomon’s chances of landing the senior coaching gig full-time, Welsh said: “I’m not ruling anyone in or out.

“Dean has an opportunity standing in now as the interim coach. He’s got a very close connection with all the players, but again that process hasn’t been defined and we’re not ruling anyone in or anyone out.”

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Asked if he had intentions to bring “old Essendon back”, Welsh said: “I love the passion of Essendon supporters. I love the history that our supporters talk about, our past players and administrators. But by no way means is our decisions around bringing ‘old Essendon people’ back as an operation to get the Essendon Football Club moving again – that is not in consideration for us at all.

“I hear a lot around ‘old Essendon’, ‘new Essendon’, ‘boys club’. I look at other clubs that, respectfully, Sam Mitchell’s gone back to Hawthorn and doing an amazing job, I look at (Justin) Longmuir over in Fremantle, (Josh) Carr has gone back to Port Adelaide. So I think there’s some really good history around players going back to clubs and the right people for those groups going to those clubs.

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“I don’t shy away from Essendon people being great people – and I want great people, Essendon people, continuing to be involved in the footy club.”

Welsh said he believed “every player on our list, from an age demographic (viewpoint), should be playing in our next premiership”.

Despite the revolving door of Essendon senior coaches since Kevin Sheedy’s departure in 2007, Welsh said guiding the Bombers was “an extremely attractive job for a coach coming in”.

“I’ll go back to our list of players and the overall strength and size of our football club,” he said.

“I can’t make comment on previous coaches and decisions that were made previous to this one, but I’m confident we are going to continue to move forward and we’ll find the right person for this group to get the most out of them.”