There’s movement between Essendon and James Hird.
Plus the ARC has been savaged for “routinely failing the game” after a weekend of blunders. Read on in AFL Daily.
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BOMBERS MAKE FIRST CONTACT WITH HIRD
Essendon president Andrew Welsh has reportedly spoken with club great James Hird for the first time about its senior coaching vacancy.
Reports from Seven and Channel 7 state there’s been contact between Welsh and Hird as the Bombers ramp up their coaching search.
Hird, who’s publicly declared his interest in returning as Essendon coach, was among 10-15 candidates the club had plans to speak with after assembling its five-person selection panel last Friday.
According to veteran journalist Caroline Wilson, Welsh also sounded out Hird for potential interest in another role in the football department — not just to be the coach.
But while Essendon caretaker coach Dean Solomon said on the weekend he would stay at Tullamarine regardless of his role in 2027, Hird is believed to be solely eyeing the top job.
Essendon has reached out to James Hird (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS
“I can tell you what James Hird’s response was… not interested in any job at Essendon bar the senior coach,” Wilson said on Agenda Setters.
Wilson expects Hird to get an official interview, but maintains her view from weeks ago that it’s unlikely he’ll win the job.
“I have been adamant all along that is not the direction Essendon wanted to go in,” she added.
“Unless there has been an extraordinary 180 degree of turnaround in the last two weeks, that is still my view.
“But James Hird is in there, and while he is in there, I guess he’s a chance.
“I would still be staggered if Essendon went to someone who hasn’t worked at a footy club or been in a footy environment apart from part-time in a lesser competition for the last 12 years.”
‘ROUTINELY FAILS THE GAME’: ARC SAVAGED, FAGAN PUZZLED BY MORRIS ERROR
Fox Footy AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley has savaged the AFL Review Centre (ARC) after another weekend of controversial moments.
It included a bizarre blunder in Saturday night’s Showdown, where Riley Thilthorpe clearly appeared but the ball was allowed to bounce back into play and from there Ben Keays was awarded a holding free kick.
Meanwhile, a shot at goal from Fremantle’s Jye Amiss against Gold Coast appeared to go over the post but was called for a review, which umpires are no longer supposed to.
“The game’s capacity to trip itself up at the moment is frankly below the status of the elite competition in the country,” Whateley said on Monday night’s program.
“In one instance the goal umpire didn’t go to the failsafe when it really needed to be used. In the other, when you’re told you’re not to go, and went anyway.
“This system has tied itself in knots, and it just routinely fails the game.
“I never believed in it, and the whole point around the stated aim was to correct the howler.
“It spends all of its time fossicking around in blurry vision for bent fingers while missing the howler.
“It is ill-conceived, it fails week on week and it’s no good for the game.”
Fagan addresses Lions star exit rumours | 01:31
Whateley also criticised the disallowed goal to Brisbane’s Logan Morris against Sydney for his shot at three-quarter time.
The AFL admitted Morris should’ve been awarded a goal after the star forward was called to play on after he appeared to pull up short of the player on the mark.
It came after the league ticked off Hawk Nick Watson’s controversial disallowed goal for running off his goal line during a shot at half-time last month.
“This is a problem of the game’s own making, this has never been an issue,” Whateley added.
“The shot after the siren, it’s the most glorious part of the game, but because we want to justify the Nick Watson decision, which should never have been justified, it should simply have been said this is not what we’re after.
“We added addendums to the rules, so that a grand final umpire was so confused over what he was supposed to do that a ball that pings straight over the man on the mark and goes through for a goal is waved away, and then on Friday morning the chief executive is on radio, and like John Hewston with the birthday cake and the GST, he didn’t know what part of the rule applied to it.
“What hope does it give any of us?
“But specifically, what hope does it give the player when we get to a moment, and this is the most beautiful part of the game.
“A player has a shot after the siren to win a game, and there are all of these things now in play. The umpire’s a little bit unsure, the players going ‘what am I actually allowed and supposed to do?’
“Your role is just to kick the goal and win the game, and we have muddied this completely unnecessarily.”
Saints great and fellow AFL 360 co-host Leigh Montagna is “adamant” players are now missing shots after the siren because they’re “paranoid” of stepping off their line, “which most players do.”
“I agree one hundred per cent and I’m going to get the numbers,” Montagna said.
“I’m adamant, and I want people to watch. I’ve seen all year players having shots for goal after the siren.
“Most are missing because they are so paranoid about whether they take half a step off their line, which most players do.”
Freo charge to top of Premiership Window | 02:30
Appearing later on the program, Lions coach Chris Fagan was miffed by the decision in his side’s 43 point win and hoped “that situation could be avoided in the future”.
“I know Logan Morris was pretty upset post game because he felt like he’d done everything right, which, as it turns out, he had,” Fagan said.
“And I thought that at the time.
“I don’t know, have we got the technology where if the umpire thinks the players stepped outside the line and can it be checked to see if he did?
“And if not, the goal should be awarded, or should we just be saying to the players, ‘well, don’t bother trying to kick around angles, just you’re just going to line up straight in front of the man on the mark and kick over his hands‘?
“I’m not sure, but I’d like to think that that situation could be avoided in the future.
“I mean, can you imagine what we would have been like after the game if we had lost by a couple of points?”