Essendon great Tim Watson says signing John Longmire is the club’s “best appointment in the last 25 years”.
Longmire, Sydney’s greatest coach and recent club director, was unveiled as the Bombers’ new general manager of performance.
The newly created role places Longmire alongside first-time senior coach Mark McVeigh at Tullamarine in 2027.
Longmire was linked to several coaching opportunities, including the vacant position at North Melbourne, but he ultimately chose the Dons.
Speaking on SEN, Watson says Longmire is “exactly what our football club needs”.
“I was really surprised and it was good fortune too because obviously he was in for the Tassie job,” Watson said.
“Then he didn’t like the way North Melbourne were going about their selection search for a coach.
“I spoke to a bloke who knows him very well late last night and he said he still has that itch. He’s still got that fire in the belly and that itch to want to be involved in a really intimate way of the game.
“But all the things that he brings to Essendon are exactly what ‘Spike’ McVeigh needs around him. Because as he said when he was appointed, this is a much bigger job than just one person, this is a whole football club type job.
“Hopefully, they’re going to make some other changes there and bring some other people in as well because I don’t think it’s finished yet, which would be a great thing if they did that.
“But this is a great way to reset the football club and the football department.”
The Bombers are likely to lose star midfielder Zach Merrett after his failed trade to Hawthorn last season.
Originally published as AFL great Tim Watson hails Essendon’s John Longmire coup