many \u2014 including prospective coaching candidates Ken Hinkley and Adam Simpson \u2014 suggested it\u2019d become a compromised search<\/a>.<\/p>\nLyon on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 wanted to set the record straight, suggesting the Hird \u201chysteria\u201d had gotten out of control due to \u201cperception and reality\u201d getting \u201cblurred at times\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssendon sacked its coach and said it\u2019s going to run a process. Then James, which he\u2019s fully entitled to, says: \u2018I\u2019ve got my hand up, I want to ne part of the process\u2019. That is it. That is reality right now,\u201d Lyon said on Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen perception takes over. That this is a boat race, that this has been put in place for a year and a half, that Kevin Sheedy is pulling the strings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis reality becomes heightened and heightened and heightened to a point of hysteria, where I hope Andrew Welsh is sitting back going: \u2018Hey, I don\u2019t care about this. This is what we are doing; we are running a process. Whether the media believe me, whether the supporter base believe me, whether Adam Simpson, Ken Hinkley, Troy Chaplin and Brent Montgomery (believe me), don\u2019t apply. We might put a line through you anyway, if that\u2019s your attitude. All we\u2019ve said is we\u2019ve moved on our coach and we\u2019re going to run a process. And you\u2019re jumping at shadows by thinking this is a done deal?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding is it\u2019s not. Now, that will remain to be seen. (Hird) will put his best foot forward, if given the opportunity, and they will legitimately pick who they think is the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the meantime, it is going to run rampant and that\u2019s one of the things they\u2019re going to have to deal with. How do we deal with hysteria? How do we deal with, either appointing him, or not appointing him? Because it comes with baggage. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I\u2019m in the corner of Essendon here: \u2018Let\u2019s deal with the reality right now. We sacked the coach and we\u2019re committing to a process. End of story. You guys, knock yourselves out. We\u2019re not interested\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buckley on interest in Essendon job | 00:47<\/p>\n
Whateley suggested the \u201ctwo other bodies\u201d at play are the Hird \u201credemptionists\u201d and \u201cthe mood\u201d of Essendon\u2019s fan base and how much support it has of the ex-coach. <\/p>\n
\u201cIs it 80 per cent? Is it 40 per cent? What is it? What does it represent? How many people of your core are going to be disenfranchised if you go on a path other than James Hird? How much of the club will you be able to reunite and surge into the future with Hird at the forefront?,\u201d he posed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what\u2019s not perception is Essendon has no chance of gathering the best pool of prospective coaches unless it answers the James Hird question to satisfy those on the outside. Is he going to be Essendon\u2019s next coach?\u201d<\/p>\n
However Lyon argued that\u2019s \u201ccontrary to everything,\u201d as he and Whateley went head-to-head on the topic. <\/p>\n
King: “The key for me is James Hird!” | 01:57<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cA strong club says: \u2018That is not the question. Is James Hird going to be part of the process of us finding the next coach? Ask me that question. Yes he is or no he isn\u2019t, one or the other. I don\u2019t care if that\u2019s your question, that\u2019s irrelevant to us. So, if Adam (Simpson) doesn\u2019t want to be involved or Ken (Hinkley) doesn\u2019t want to be involved because they think we\u2019ve already made a decision, then so be it. We\u2019ll run the risk of not having you involved in the process\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cI don\u2019t doubt for a second they haven\u2019t made their decision. But I think the first step in the process is going to have to be to run James Hird through it. Because the suspicions of those on the outside and the damage you risk doing to yourself by putting yourself in that ring. This is peculiar, this is unique, there\u2019s never been anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cBut you\u2019re making the assumption they can\u2019t run a fair process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cThey can run a fair process, but people won\u2019t put themselves into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cWell, so be it. You\u2019re not going to blink at that, are you? If you\u2019re running it? <\/p>\n
Whateley: Yes, I want the best possible coach for my club. The only way to get that is to answer the Hird question first: \u2018Is James Hird our coach? No, alright, now we\u2019re having a process. Come one, come all!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cThe answer to your question is; James Hird is part of the process, are you prepared to go against him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cDefinitely not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cWell, get out! We don\u2019t want you involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solomon: “It’s been a tough week” | 08:52<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cAnd I\u2019ll go and join the other 52 candidates who are the best credentialed in the AFL and who are not going to participate here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cSo, you\u2019re jumping at the hurdle, when the hurdle is not there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cNo, no, the hurdle is immense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cIt\u2019s a perceptional hurdle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cNo, it\u2019s not. It\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cNo!\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cIt\u2019s real in the faction, it\u2019s real in the supporter base. It might not be real at board level, but that doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cYou can\u2019t win the race if you don\u2019t jump out of the barrier. In the end, if they want to stay back in the barrier, Essendon say, stay back in the barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n
New coach, same old Essendon | 02:37<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cYes, but if you beat James Hird in this process, we\u2019ve already seen what this looks like. Kevin Sheedy undermined the coach that was chosen, before he even got to the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cI can\u2019t talk for Kevin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cThis time it is four years more intense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cI understand.\u201d <\/p>\n
Whateley: \u201cThat\u2019s why I would want to know: \u2018If I win this job against James Hird, am I disenfranchising 85 per cent of my supporter base? No, no, leave me out of that. I\u2019m going to coach Carlton, I\u2019m chips in on Carlton, it\u2019s a better list\u2019. My god, we found a club that made Carlton look functional and desirable.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lyon: \u201cIn the end, I think they might have to appoint him anyway. Just to get it done. You and I may or may not be here in three, four or five years. But if they don\u2019t (appoint him), guess what? We\u2019re going to have the same conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne legend Garry Lyon has declared critics that say Essendon\u2019s coaching search is a boat race due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[1146,638,107267,64,63,55,639,684,182815,79258,696,6856,338986,344430,20536,63402,143664,11231,344428,10145,61,15893,48340,7484,86147,7145,344429,344431,22401,85,68900,40098],"class_list":["post-708151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adam-simpson","tag-afl","tag-andrew-welsh","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-cotton","tag-board-level","tag-boat-race","tag-brad-scott","tag-carlton","tag-coach-contender","tag-coaching-dilemma","tag-coaching-job","tag-coaching-search","tag-dean-solomon","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-fair-process","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-head-coaching","tag-james-hird","tag-ken-hinkley","tag-kevin-sheedy","tag-king","tag-lyon-ampamp-whateley","tag-prospective-coaching-candidates","tag-senior-coach","tag-sports","tag-supporter-base","tag-troy-chaplin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708151","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=708151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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