{"id":800623,"date":"2026-07-14T22:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800623\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T22:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:44:18","slug":"afl-news-2026-james-hird-grilled-on-essendon-coaching-push-says-balancing-bombers-bid-with-media-duties-is-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800623\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026: James Hird grilled on Essendon coaching push, says balancing Bombers bid with media duties is \u2018complicated\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Hird<\/a> batted away questions on Tuesday night about his push to return as coach of Essendon<\/a>, but admitted juggling media commitments with his Bombers bid was proving \u201ccomplicated\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hird also confirmed on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified that he met with Essendon bosses on Tuesday, in his heavily publicised pursuit to return to the coaching hot seat after Brad Scott\u2019s sacking opened the door<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Essendon coach James Hird and ex-Bombers president Paul Little at Neale Daniher\u2019s funeral in June.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Richmond and Western Bulldogs great Nathan Brown<\/a> put to Hird that navigating his job in the media while gunning for the Bombers gig must be proving hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complicated; I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s hard. We\u2019re talking about footy, and it\u2019s a great job to be on air and talk with you guys about a sport that I love. But it\u2019s complicated trying to balance both,\u201d Hird replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a paid employee of Channel Nine, you owe a service to them to give the best of your ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, when you enter into confidential conversations, you need to keep them confidential.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s complicated rather than hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to reports, Corey Enright, Jaymie Graham, Hayden Skipworth, James Kelly and Mark McVeigh are among those in the mix for the Essendon job.<\/p>\n

Dean Solomon, who\u2019s serving as interim after Scott was punted, has said he has not yet decided if he will push for the permanent gig.<\/p>\n

Hird was guarded when prodded about the process on Footy Classified.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said on Sunday, I\u2019m not going to comment on the process,\u201d he said with a grin.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that I\u2019m in it, I won\u2019t respond to comments, so I\u2019d prefer just to leave it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

St Kilda assistant coach Corey Enright having a laugh with Saints star Liam Ryan.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfair to Essendon and to myself to keep talking about it. While the process is going on, I\u2019m not going to comment any further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I get the job, I\u2019ll comment, and if I get kicked out of the process, then I\u2019ll comment then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he would enjoy being part of the process, Hird said: \u201cAbsolutely. As I said, the process has started, and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was asked what he\u2019d do if another club came knocking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen, so I don\u2019t have that dilemma,\u201d he grinned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all in on Essendon.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for a timeframe on when he may hear back from the Bombers?<\/p>\n

\u201cRespectfully, I just don\u2019t want to respond,\u201d he said in reply to that question.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to put any fuel on the fire, and with this Essendon process, I really have no comment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Hird batted away questions on Tuesday night about his push to return as coach of Essendon, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-800623","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\/800623","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=800623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}