{"id":760649,"date":"2026-06-26T02:41:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760649\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T02:41:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:41:24","slug":"essendon-coaching-panel-bombers-confirm-selection-committee-and-criteria-for-new-senior-coach-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/760649\/","title":{"rendered":"Essendon coaching panel: Bombers confirm selection committee and criteria for new senior coach appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jake<\/p>\n

June 26, 2026 \u2014 10:20am<\/p>\n

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Essendon have revealed the criteria for their next senior coach and will speak to 10-15 candidates either with senior coaching experience or who are highly rated assistants.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Bombers also announced the panel to select the new coach, which will feature president Andrew Welsh, vice president Anthony Di Pietro, board members Ted Richards and Tim Roberts, and HR executive Caroline Monzon.<\/p>\n

\"BombersBombers president Andrew Welsh.Getty Images<\/p>\n

While no external people are on the panel, the Bombers said they would \u201cdraw on subject matter experts from both within the club and outside it to inform our assessment and decision-making\u201d.<\/p>\n

James Hird, the former champion and coach who has signalled public interest in the role, will be among the candidates that the panel speaks to.<\/p>\n

The club said that reports Welsh had endorsed Dean Solomon, his friend and former teammate who is interim coach, for the permanent role, were incorrect. Solomon could still decide to nominate for the process. It is an open process with no requirement that applicants be \u201can Essendon person\u201d or have a Bombers background.<\/p>\n

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

In revealing their criteria on Friday in a letter to members, the Bombers said \u201cdevelopment and connection are major priorities for our emerging list, as are our culture, environment and overall football structure\u201d and that the new coach would be aligned with the club\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have spent the past month consulting with our board, executive, football staff, coaches and players on what the success profile looks like for the next senior coach of the club. This has been a detailed process to form the brief and criteria for our search,\u201d the letter said,<\/p>\n

The Bombers feel that their panel has people with sufficient experience in external organisations \u2013 in Richards, who is a premiership player with the Swans, and Di Pietro, who has appointed coaches at A-League club Melbourne Victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur next coach will inherit a group with its best football ahead of it and the opportunity to shape a team capable of consistently competing for finals and premierships,\u201d they said in a letter to members.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnsurprisingly, there has already been strong interest in the role, both publicly and privately.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident in our direction, and equally confident in the coach we will appoint to help lead us there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/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":"June 26, 2026 \u2014 10:20am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-760649","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\/760649","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=760649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}