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Should he get the job, it would be Hird\u2019s third stint in charge of his former club.<\/p>\n
After retiring as a player after the 2007 season, Hird took the job at the end of 2010, lasting until the end of 2013 when he was banned from coaching for his role in the supplements saga.<\/p>\n
Returning for the 2015 season, a poor 5-14 campaign saw Hird quit the job, and his lone role in the AFL coaching ranks ever since was a part-time assistant role at GWS under Mark McVeigh during the 2022 season.<\/p>\n
But his spectre has loomed over Essendon ever since his exit with many around the club desperate to return to the glory days and feeling he was wronged by external forces.<\/p>\n
Buckley, Longmire… or James Hird?! | 08:17<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s exit, which has seen Hird\u2019s former teammate Dean Solomon installed as interim coach in a move led by former teammate and now-president Andrew Welsh, has now opened the door for Hird\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing for me as an Essendon person is for them to go through the most exhaustive process possible to find the best person,\u201d Hird said on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the club came to me and said \u2018would you be part of that process?\u2019 I would definitely say yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is something I\u2019d love to be part of, to pit my wares against the other coaches and see if I\u2019m the best man for the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m the best man for the job, yes I would love to do that job.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m not, choose the best man and let\u2019s go forward and make it the best club in the AFL again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hird\u2019s public entry into the race arguably makes him the favourite to win it – given the vocal support he has within Essendon\u2019s fanbase, and the impact it would have on another candidate should they beat him to the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mistakes made in 2011 and 2012 (in the supplements saga) were partly my fault,\u201d Hird said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spirit of Essendon is not there. We are at ground zero… that needs people around the place that know how to rebuild that spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brad Scott addresses the players with James Hird watching on during the 2025 AFL Round 20 match between the Essendon Bombers and the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on July 25, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by James Wiltshire\/AFL Photos)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hird is currently the director of coaching at VFL side Port Melbourne where his son, Tom, plays.<\/p>\n
Last year he denied any interest in returning to Essendon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, at that time, I wasn\u2019t in a position to coach and it wasn\u2019t on my mind or something I wanted to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a coach who was doing reasonably well … but things have changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club has gotten to the position where they\u2019ve won one game in 27, it hasn\u2019t been performing well – and that\u2019s distressing for me, because, as I said, I\u2019ve loved being part of that football clubs and being part of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welsh left the door open to Hird\u2019s return in a press conference on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re not ruling anyone in or anyone out of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure that there\u2019ll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Triple premiership Bomber Tim Watson, in the wake of Scott\u2019s axing, suggested on SEN there was \u201ca very, very strong push from a lot of people out there to get James back at Essendon coaching\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Hird wants to coach Essendon again. The Brownlow medallist confirmed on Tuesday night he\u2019s willing to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-695718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}