{"id":711320,"date":"2026-06-02T22:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T22:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711320\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T22:56:11","slug":"afl-news-2026-james-hird-interview-as-essendon-finalises-coaching-process-bombers-great-admits-he-hasnt-reached-out-to-club-or-andrew-welsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711320\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026: James Hird interview as Essendon finalises coaching process, Bombers great admits he hasn\u2019t reached out to club or Andrew Welsh"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL great James Hird says he\u2019s been \u201cvery conscious\u201d to avoid contacting Essendon president Andrew Welsh in the past week, declaring he doesn\u2019t want to be \u201cspoiling the process\u201d of the club\u2019s coaching search.<\/p>\n

But Hird insists he still wants another crack at coaching the Bombers and would still \u201clove to be part of the process\u201d.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hird has been the talk of the AFL world for the past seven days<\/a> after he stated he would \u201cdefinitely say yes\u201d, if asked, to being part of the Bombers\u2019 process<\/a> to find their new coach \u2013 12 hours after Brad Scott\u2019s sacking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His declaration of his desire to coach his beloved Bombers for a second time \u2013 11 years after his sacking in the wake of the Essendon supplements saga \u2013 ignited a media coverage storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been interesting. I thought the days of me being chased down the streets by cameras on motorbikes were well and truly gone, but we went back to that last week,\u201d Hird told Footy Classified on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The criteria for Essendon coaching role? | 04:08<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of stories, some true, some not true, some speculating. A lot of opinions about what I should do or shouldn\u2019t do. But for me, I stand by what I said last (week): I\u2019d love to be part of the process and see what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just got bigger and bigger and bigger all week to the point on the weekend, it felt like it was all-consuming for the football world. It certainly wasn\u2019t my intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hird insisted he hadn\u2019t reached out to the Bombers \u2013 nor had the club contacted him \u2013 and had no intention to accelerate the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Welsh is a good friend of mine, we\u2019ve been friends for 20 years,\u201d Hird said. \u201cI coached Andrew in his last game back in 2011 and I\u2019ve known him since he was a young kid.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI want Essendon, as I said the other night, to go about and go through an exhausting process \u2013 and if I am the candidate that they choose, fantastic. If I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n

The criteria for Essendon coaching role? | 04:08<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in terms of contacting Essendon or being contacted by them, that hasn\u2019t happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he wanted to know if he\u2019d be part of an Essendon coach contenders shortlist, Hird said: \u201cI don\u2019t \u2018hope\u2019 to do anything, I don\u2019t \u2018hope\u2019 for anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want is for the process to be an exhaustive process \u2026 and I\u2019d like to be part of that process. If it happens in two weeks, three weeks \u2013 it\u2019s their timeline and they should set the best process possible. Let\u2019s give them the air and the space to do that.<\/p>\n

CODE Sports writer Scott Gullan reported on Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle on Tuesday night<\/a> that Hird had \u201cspoken to a lot of his close associates\u201d and begun to assemble \u201cTeam Hird\u201d to form a core support group should he be successful in his pitch.<\/p>\n

Some of the names Gullan reported included Mark McVeigh, Dean Solomon, Brendan McCartney, Dyson Heppell, Jimmy Bartel and even Michael Voss.<\/p>\n

Lyon & Whateley clash over Dons search | 05:45<\/p>\n

When asked about the report on Tuesday night, Hird said things formally \u201chaven\u2019t got to that level\u201d, but acknowledged he\u2019d thought deeply about a possible support network.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you think about who you\u2019d like. You\u2019ve got people in the football world who you respect and who you\u2019d like to work with,\u201d Hird said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut putting a team together hasn\u2019t happened \u2026 but you don\u2019t get to this point now and not have been thinking about it day and night about how you would put it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked when he\u2019d start to prepare for a seemingly inevitable interview with the Bombers, Hird said: \u201cI think I\u2019ve been preparing for this interview for the last 35 to 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL great James Hird says he\u2019s been \u201cvery conscious\u201d to avoid contacting Essendon president Andrew Welsh in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,107267,64,63,55,639,3423,696,345403,345806,25297,345801,188821,122945,345803,42903,10145,61,15893,48340,102517,345805,338846,345802,3257,345804,29653,85,327005],"class_list":["post-711320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-andrew-welsh","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-brad-scott","tag-brendan-mccartney","tag-coach-contenders","tag-coaching-role","tag-core-support-group","tag-dream-team","tag-dyson-heppell","tag-finalises-coaching","tag-football-world","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-head-coaching","tag-james-hird","tag-jimmy-bartel","tag-lyon-amp-whateley","tag-mark-mcveigh","tag-media-coverage-storm","tag-michael-voss","tag-possible-support-network","tag-scott-gullan","tag-sports","tag-supplements-saga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711320","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=711320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}