{"id":756678,"date":"2026-06-24T06:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756678\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T06:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:38:16","slug":"afl-2026-why-the-essendon-bombers-coaching-job-which-james-hird-and-dean-solomon-have-been-heavily-linked-to-is-actually-better-than-advertised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756678\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Why the Essendon Bombers coaching job, which James Hird and Dean Solomon have been heavily linked to, is actually better than advertised"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It is easy to sketch an unflattering portrait of Essendon\u2019s coaching position and to question why the strongest candidates, seasoned or capable assistants, ought to steer clear of King\u2019s Landing at Tullamarine.<\/p>\n

One does not have to go far to find observers in the AFL ecosystem who think coaching Essendon is less secure than occupying No.10 Downing Street.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Hird is currently director of coaching at Port Melbourne but has made no secret of his desire to once again coach the Bombers.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you go there?\u201d has been a frequent refrain. Many view Carlton and Tasmania<\/a> as more attractive propositions for aspiring coaches.<\/p>\n

The negative storyline is as follows: the Bombers are on the bottom. Zach Merrett<\/a> and Jordan Ridley want out. Senior players form the weakest frontbench in the competition. Factions, money men, coteries and Kevin Sheedy and\/or James Hird will cast a shadow from the outset if you get the gig (and Hird or caretaker Dean Solomon do not).<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll get a couple of years mopping up a mess before becoming the latest to disappear down the Tullamarine trap door, ending your senior coaching career, in the manner of Ben Rutten<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This perception is understandable. The Bombers have been riven with politics for nearly two decades<\/a>. The past has exercised some kind of spell over the club and an unhealthy portion of its justifiably despairing fan base.<\/p>\n

\"EssendonEssendon premiership hero and interim coach Dean Solomon in his playing days under the club\u2019s legendary coach, Kevin Sheedy.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Outsiders \u2013 which Sheedy was the consummate example of when hired in 1980 \u2013 are viewed as interlopers by many of the tribe, since none have succeeded since Sheedy.<\/p>\n

This is in marked contrast to Geelong, who have not hired \u201ca Geelong person\u201d as coach since 1986. That coach, the late John Devine, is the last to be sacked by the Cats.<\/p>\n

None of these peculiarities and pathologies would hinder the next Essendon coach if he gets the Bombers to rise up the ladder.<\/p>\n

\"SullivanSullivan Robey and Nate Caddy are both stars in the making.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Once the fans have new heroes \u2013 if and when Sullivan Robey, Jacob Farrow, Nate Caddy, whoever they pick first in the draft, and potentially others become stars \u2013 the past will be banished to where it belongs, the past.<\/p>\n

Essendon, abject as they\u2019ve been since the middle of 2025, are in better shape, on the rebuild front, than outward appearances and recent results suggest.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Consider what the next coach will inherit:<\/p>\n

They will get either pick No.1 or 2 in the national draft. This ought to deliver a gun.Due to the bidding system for academy and father-son players, they won\u2019t land either Dougie Cochrane (Port Adelaide) or Cody Walker (Carlton). But the Bombers, like the whole bottom five, will be compensated with an extra end-of-first-round choice \u2013 around pick No.20.Already enormous, the salary cap space should be between $3 million and $4 million \u2013 closer to the latter if Merrett departs, as he should.Trading Merrett would bring at least one first-round pick. Essendon, thus, will likely enter the national draft will a haul approaching Richmond\u2019s 2024 bounty, with perhaps four or five picks inside the top 22. But unlike the Tigers, the Bombers\u2019 draft hand \u2013 the last before the drafts are gutted by Tasmania \u2013 will not require the trading out of key players in their mid-careers, which has prolonged Richmond\u2019s pain. Merrett and Ridley turn 31 and 28 respectively in October.Most crucially, much of the unpleasant spade work on the list has already been completed on Brad Scott\u2019s watch. Jake Stringer was offloaded<\/a>, harming the Dons\u2019 winning chances in 2025 and 2026, along with Dylan Shiel, Jayden Laverde and Todd Goldstein (a stop-gap only). Sam Draper left as a free agent last year.The club\u2019s obvious leadership candidates, the wholehearted Sam Durham and committed Nic Martin<\/a> (who will return from his knee injury for 2027), are in their mid-20s and should be ready to drive the group forward. Surely, there won\u2019t be another injury saga like the one that bedevilled them last year.<\/p>\n

It is better to take over a team on the bottom, with massive draft capital and salary cap space, than one stuck where Essendon have been for eons, between eighth and 15th. A few higher picks have been pushed back by free agency or NGA\/father-son bids.<\/p>\n

The Dons\u2019 heavily scrutinised draft and trading missteps have been mainly from mid-range picks (skipper Andy McGrath, pick No.1, 2016, is an exception) and they were cursed with three top-10 picks in the COVID-afflicted draft of 2020.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew McGrath has stepped up as skipper in one of Essendon\u2019s most challenging periods on-field.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n

Their first-rounders since 2023 have been sound choices.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Zach<\/a><\/p>\n

Few quality players will be banging down the door to get to Essendon at season\u2019s end. Toby Greene is Powerball odds to leave the Giants for Essendon, irrespective of Hird\u2019s presence or that of anyone else.<\/p>\n

That said, the Bombers are more comparable to Richmond, Hawthorn and Carlton than to St Kilda and North Melbourne. Once powerful clubs gather steam, as Hawthorn did in 2024, free agents and decent out-of-contract players will jump on board.<\/p>\n

The next two years won\u2019t be plain sailing. But the new coach gets a restart, and won\u2019t be expected to play finals in that time.<\/p>\n

All that the Essendon hierarchy needs to do is convince the best aspiring coaches that this situation is genuinely vacant, that they will hire the best candidate as coach, like a normal club, and that an Essendon passport is not necessary to get past customs and immigration at Tullamarine.<\/p>\n

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\"JakeJake Niall<\/a> is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-756678","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\/756678","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=756678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}