{"id":741050,"date":"2026-06-16T22:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741050\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T22:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:26:19","slug":"afl-news-2026-greats-torn-over-one-mans-involvement-in-essendon-coaching-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741050\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026 | Greats torn over one man\u2019s involvement in Essendon coaching race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon<\/a> are beginning to narrow down their criteria for what they want in a new coach, but there are calls for one member of that selection panel to step aside. <\/p>\n

Brad Scott\u2019s replacement<\/a> has yet to be identified despite several candidates being floated, including former coach and club legend James Hird<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Essendon<\/p>\n

Essendon president Andrew Welsh.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hird has made clear he hopes the club does what is best for the playing group and commits to a comprehensive interviewing process to find a new coach. <\/p>\n

That view is not uncommon, with Essendon great Tim Watson saying he would \u201cbe horrified\u201d if his former club did not run an extensive process to replace Scott.<\/p>\n

But for that to happen, Watson believes club president Andrew Welsh should not be on the selection panel. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be a panel that is arm\u2019s length from the football club,\u201d he told SEN. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs independent as you can possibly make it, so there are no leanings or connections to any of the people who go there and get interviewed – that\u2019s in fairness to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s view was presented to Nine\u2019s Footy Classified panel on Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n

Nine\u2019s Eddie McGuire disagreed with Watson\u2019s plea to remove Welsh from the panel, recognising that the president should be the person in charge of that call. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe president has got to be there to make the call,\u201d he said on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows his stuff and is putting his life on the line and his reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But footy legend Dermott Brereton did not feel Watson\u2019s call was too unjust.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is going to be there in the end anyway,\u201d Brereton said. <\/p>\n

\u201c(I think) you should appoint your subcommittee, appoint all these wise football heads to make a selection and then get them to present it to the board that is headed by the president,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they can ratify it or say, \u2018go back and try again\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At VFL club Port Melbourne Hird has teamed up with his son, Tom.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hird admitted that he feels regardless of what league greats have to say about the process that Welsh will inevitably be at the centre of all talks about the new coach.<\/p>\n

Still, he insisted that it will not be a \u201cboat race\u201d for any rumoured candidate to win. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it is a boat race, I think it will be a legitimate process,\u201d Hird said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to the club … but from what I understand, it will be a proper process. And like I said three weeks ago, I want to put up my hand and go through the process if that is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might look silly in hindsight, but I am sitting here today saying I believe that there will be a comprehensive process that goes through all the different coaches. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is what the fans want, what the club deserves and what the footy club will do. <\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Welsh will be right in the middle of all this. He won\u2019t be letting people ratify something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon are beginning to narrow down their criteria for what they want in a new coach, but there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-741050","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\/741050","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=741050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}