{"id":710464,"date":"2026-06-02T13:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710464\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T13:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:49:21","slug":"afl-news-2026-james-hird-sets-the-record-straight-on-essendon-coaching-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710464\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026 | James Hird sets the record straight on Essendon coaching talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Hird<\/a> has dismissed a series of reports regarding his interest in being the next Essendon<\/a> coach, revealing he has not yet spoken to the club about the job. <\/p>\n

It has been a week since Hird stated he would be open to stepping into the vacant role at Essendon<\/a>, and noise has only grown louder about his potential return. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

James Hird coached Essendon from 2011 to 2015.\u00a0Footy Classified<\/p>\n

Opinions on Hird taking on the job, along with reports he had already started building the foundations of \u2018Team Hird\u2019, captivated the AFL world over the weekend, in what the 53-year-old described as an \u201cinteresting\u201d end to his week. <\/p>\n

And just as he naturally informed the public last week on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified that he was interested in the opportunity, he returned to the panel to set the record straight on the rumours and reports he has been at the centre of.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just got bigger and bigger and bigger … on the weekend, it felt like it was all consuming for the football world,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the days of me being chased down the streets by guys with cameras on motorbikes were gone, but we went back to that last week. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

James Hird in action as an assistant coach at the Giants. \u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of stories, some true and some not. There were lots of opinions about what I should and shouldn\u2019t do. But for me, I stand by what I said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite making his ambitions clear last week, Hird bluntly revealed \u201cnothing\u201d has happened between him and Essendon since he voiced his interest in the job. <\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Welsh is a good friend of mine, we\u2019ve been friends for 20 years,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have been very conscious not to reach out to him because I think that is spoiling the process, and it is inserting myself in a way that I don\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Essendon to go, as I said the other night, through an exhausting process. If I am the candidate that they choose, fantastic. If I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hird revealed he has not been contacted by Essendon at all over the past week.<\/p>\n

Asked if he is hoping the club will be in contact soon, Hird reiterated his stance that the Bombers need to implement the best process for them not him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t hope for anything,\u201d he replied. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want is for the process to be an exhausting one. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to be part of that process. If that happens in two weeks, three weeks – it is their timeline, and they should set the best process possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s give them the air and space to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFL great did not shy away from acknowledging reports that he had built a team of notable figures to help sway Welsh to appoint him in the job. <\/p>\n

The likes of Mark McVeigh, Dean Solomon, Brendan McCartney and Michael Voss has been reported as candidates that Hird would like in his coaching team.<\/p>\n

But things \u201chaven\u2019t got to that level\u201d for Hird just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you think about who you would like and there are people in the football world who you respect or would like to work with,\u201d Hird said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting a team together has not happened … but you don\u2019t get to this point now without thinking day and night about how you would put it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Hird has got prepared, however, is his responses for the interview. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve been preparing for this interview over the past 35 to 40 years,\u201d he concluded. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Hird has dismissed a series of reports regarding his interest in being the next Essendon coach, revealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-710464","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\/710464","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=710464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}