spoken with former teammate turned Essendon president Andrew Welsh<\/a>, confirming he\u2019d be \u201cpart of the process\u201d to find the next Bombers coach after Brad Scott\u2019s sacking.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was good to finally have some contact from the club and have a chat about what the next steps are in this process that we\u2019re all looking forward to,\u201d Hird told Channel 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe job interview was for one role \u2013 and that was what was pretty clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Scott\u2019s departure, Hird has consistently declared publicly he\u2019s keen to return to Essendon as senior coach \u2013 a role he held in the mid-2010s amid the infamous Bombers supplements saga before his exit in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the Hird Manifesto right from the start,\u201d Whateley told Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 on Wednesday night. \u201cHe wants to be part of the process and then he\u2019ll take on the responsibility of winning the process from there. I admire it.<\/p>\n
James Hird wants to coach Essendon again. Picture: Wayne LudbeySource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be hard to beat on the vision for Essendon \u2013 that much I\u2019m absolutely sure of. And then how does it weigh up on a coaching front?\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley also reiterated his belief that Hird\u2019s candidacy could deter rival applicants. <\/p>\n
\u201cHird\u2019s presence in the process before an all-Essendon panel, it does complicate the overall. We\u2019re already aware of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we just put up the names that have been linked to the Carlton process this week \u2026 if you took a sweep across the industry, most people would come up with those six or seven \u2013 and a few more \u2013 and go: \u2018Those are our most likely candidates to be the next senior coaches.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question for Essendon is how many of those will be prepared to engage in their process with Hird as part of it. We already know from Jake Niall\u2019s reporting that Daniel Giansiracusa will take a pass on Essendon. We\u2019ll only know over the next few weeks whether those names and a couple of others are prepared to be part of it or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was Ken Hinkley\u2019s starting point on this. For him, Essendon would have to answer the Hird question first. The Hird question is not going to be answered through anything other than the process \u2013 and that\u2019s the complicating factor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ‘Zach Merrett Conondrum’ for Bombers | 01:48<\/p>\n
But co-host Montagna said Essendon had made the right call to include Hird in the official process, rather than give him preferential treatment over other candidates..<\/p>\n
\u201cThat may compromise it a little bit that you may not get every prospective coach wanting to go for this job. But I think that\u2019s OK,\u201d Montagna told AFL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are prospective coaches that are selective with which clubs they go for job interviews in the past, because you only get a certain amount of opportunities, I think, as an assistant coach in getting a job. If they decide this is one that they don\u2019t want to be a part of, I think that happens \u2013 and so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montagna suggested Essendon\u2019s next coach would need to help rebuild the club as much as coach the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it feels like it\u2019s more than just the X\u2019s and O\u2019s of a game plan and developing players. It feels a bit more complex in that it\u2019s a bit deeper,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they need to look a bit more outside the square and how they can get back to being a team that can win a final and be a great club again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot still to work through, it\u2019s going to be intriguing how this process goes and how many people are in it and what they come out with the verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Hird\u2019s inclusion in Essendon\u2019s senior coaching search will \u201ccomplicate\u201d the club\u2019s hunt for its next coach, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-773182","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\/773182","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=773182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n