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BOMBERS NARROW SHORTLIST AS LONGMIRE SAYS \u2018I\u2019VE GOT A FEW THINGS TO CONSIDER\u2019<\/p>\n
Essendon is keen to interview at least six candidates for its vacant coaching role \u2013 but Swans premiership coach John Longmire is remaining tight-lipped on whether he\u2019ll speak to the Bombers \u2026 or any club for that matter.<\/p>\n
The Bombers, Blues and Devils are all on the hunt for full-time senior coaches. Tasmania is keen to appoint its inaugural boss ideally before the end AFL season, while Carlton is a few weeks ahead of Essendon in its coaching search considering Michael Voss\u2019 Blues departure occurred a fortnight before the Bombers sacked Brad Scott. The Bombers, however, have reached out to an array of possible candidates in recent weeks to gauge their interest in the gig.<\/p>\n
Club legend James Hird, who\u2019s consistently declared his desire to return as Bombers coach, last week confirmed he\u2019d spoken with Essendon president Andrew Welsh and would be part of the club\u2019s process.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Channel 7 on Wednesday night, Morris revealed a list of candidates the Bombers were \u201ccertain to speak to\u201d as part of their coaching process.<\/p>\n
Essendon legend James Hird. Picture: Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
As well as Hird, five current assistant coaches were named in the report: Hayden Skipworth (Collingwood), James Kelly (Geelong), Corey Enright (St Kilda), Jaymie Graham (Fremantle) and Mark McVeigh (Sydney), with the latter a former 232-game Bomber and ex-Giants caretaker coach in 2022. Morris said Enright and Graham were \u201cwildcards\u201d considering they\u2019re the only two contenders without a past Essendon connection.<\/p>\n
Morris said current Essendon caretaker Dean Solomon would also be interviewed, but \u201cit was up to him\u201d if he wanted to be part of the process. He added Longmire and Ken Hinkley were also on the club\u2019s radar, but both had their eyes on the vacant Tassie gig for now.<\/p>\n
Asked cheekily by Kath Loughnan on Wednesday night how it felt to \u201cbe so wanted\u201d in the AFL industry, Longmire told Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360: \u201cWell I don\u2019t use my energy focusing on the public chatter too much. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s energy well spent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a few things to consider, but one of the most important things for me is also to do my job at the moment that I\u2019ve got really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said a few weeks ago these things get to play out over time and that\u2019s what it tends to do. I\u2019m not one to give public commentary on the way through that, I\u2019ll just let it play out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018WHAT CHARLIE LIKES\u2019: VOSS\u2019 CURNOW WARNING FOR DOCKERS<\/p>\n
Former Carlton coach Michael Voss has warned the \u201cassertive\u201d nature of Fremantle\u2019s key defenders could play into the hands of in-form Swan Charlie Curnow, unless the Dockers tweak their approach on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The Dockers host Sydney in a blockbuster, top-of-the-table clash at Optus Stadium, with Curnow coming into the game with 22 goals from his past five matches, including six majors last week against the Western Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 on Wednesday night, Voss said he\u2019d been impressed with Curnow\u2019s approach in recent times after a patchy start to the season.<\/p>\n
Voss, who coached Curnow for four seasons at Carlton, said the key forward had the potential to expose the Dockers\u2019 defence.<\/p>\n
Injured Tom Papley back for the Swans | 00:49<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to look at result v result, he\u2019s kicking goals \u2013 he\u2019ll no doubt kick 60-plus goals \u2013 and he\u2019s (almost) leading the Coleman, so his scoring threat is very real,\u201d Voss told AFL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love about his game over the last little period of time is he seems intent on not invading someone else\u2019s space. He\u2019s played system for most of the year, but in the last couple of weeks I think we\u2019ve started to see that confidence build in his contested marking and he\u2019s now starting to get those one-on-one battles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s learning the system, clearly, a lot more and he\u2019s teasing the opposition a little bit more.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow Fremantle play him will be an interesting one, because Fremantle traditionally \u2013(Alex) Pearce and (Brennan) Cox \u2013 stand out front, be assertive \u2026 it\u2019s sort of what Charlie likes. He likes assertive defenders to be able to play in front and then he can work his leading patterns from there, draw you into the contest then get them out the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether they make an adjustment or not will be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fresh Essendon coaching shortlist has been revealed as John Longmire addresses speculation over his footy future. Plus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-787868","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\/787868","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=787868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}