{"id":752988,"date":"2026-06-22T14:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752988\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T14:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:02:14","slug":"afl-news-2026-matthew-lloyd-grilled-over-essendon-coaching-hunt-dean-solomon-future-sam-mcclure-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752988\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026: Matthew Lloyd grilled over Essendon coaching hunt; Dean Solomon future, Sam McClure questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Lloyd<\/a> has been grilled over Essendon<\/a>\u2019s coaching situation, with interim boss Dean Solomon<\/a> emerging as the frontrunner for the role.<\/p>\n

Solomon – who was serving as part of the club\u2019s board until the end of last year – took over from Brad Scott when he was sacked last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dean Solomon is in the mix for the Essendon job.\u00a0AFL Photos<\/p>\n

The premiership-winning Bombers player is yet to lead the side to a victory as they languish on the bottom of the AFL ladder, but is seen as a genuine chance to take over in a full-time capacity, along with fellow club great James Hird<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified, former teammate Lloyd admitted it \u201cdoes look like\u201d Solomon is in the box seat to earn the job permanently depending on Hird\u2019s status<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That comment got a response from journalist Sam McClure<\/a>, who immediately stepped in and questioned what Solomon had done to deserve the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I ask a dumb question on Solomon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it about him, outside of being connected to Essendon, what could it be that attracts [president] Andrew Welsh<\/a> and the board to Dean Solomon? <\/p>\n

\u201cBased on what we know about him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lloyd attempted to answer McClure\u2019s probe as best as possible, but stumbled through his words trying to give an explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I think he [Welsh] just thinks he\u2019s \u2026 a massive rap for him and how much the players respect him,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

McClure again peppered Lloyd about his qualifications, pointing out Solomon had only spent half a season in an assistant coaching role since leaving the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Welsh] has known him for 20 years, so that\u2019s his prerogative to choose along with other people within Essendon,\u201d Lloyd said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just answering the question, I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s right – that\u2019s just how he views Dean Solomon and how people within the club view him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Lloyd has been grilled over Essendon\u2019s coaching situation, with interim boss Dean Solomon emerging as the frontrunner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-752988","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\/752988","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=752988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}