{"id":909269,"date":"2026-09-29T02:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T02:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909269\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T02:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T02:26:17","slug":"afl-great-tim-watson-hails-essendons-john-longmire-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909269\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL great Tim Watson hails Essendon\u2019s John Longmire coup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon great Tim Watson says signing John Longmire is the club\u2019s \u201cbest appointment in the last 25 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Longmire, Sydney\u2019s greatest coach and recent club director, was unveiled as the Bombers\u2019 new general manager of performance.<\/p>\n

The newly created role places Longmire alongside first-time senior coach Mark McVeigh<\/a> at Tullamarine in 2027.<\/p>\n

Longmire was linked to several coaching opportunities, including the vacant position at North Melbourne, but he ultimately chose the Dons.<\/p>\n

Speaking on SEN, Watson says Longmire is \u201cexactly what our football club needs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really surprised and it was good fortune too because obviously he was in for the Tassie job,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he didn\u2019t like the way North Melbourne were going about their selection search for a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to a bloke who knows him very well late last night and he said he still has that itch. He\u2019s still got that fire in the belly and that itch to want to be involved in a really intimate way of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut all the things that he brings to Essendon are exactly what \u2018Spike\u2019 McVeigh needs around him. Because as he said when he was appointed, this is a much bigger job than just one person, this is a whole football club type job.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, they\u2019re going to make some other changes there and bring some other people in as well because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s finished yet, which would be a great thing if they did that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is a great way to reset the football club and the football department.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bombers are likely to lose star midfielder Zach Merrett<\/a> after his failed trade to Hawthorn last season.<\/p>\n

Originally published as AFL great Tim Watson hails Essendon\u2019s John Longmire coup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon great Tim Watson says signing John Longmire is the club\u2019s \u201cbest appointment in the last 25 years\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[477528,387458,477532,477516,477517,252305,400064,477530,386792,426805,409623,477529,477525,477526,477521,638,194336,477539,436174,64,63,55,639,3028,477533,477515,17549,6854,477518,477527,30404,477537,107961,36826,392558,464374,477538,477540,43961,6855,419421,477535,477523,28389,477520,477541,474452,29601,85,477544,670,388588,477524,477536,387914,382205,477543,395497,455515,74713,477531,477522,477542,477519,214758,477534,25252,9833],"class_list":["post-909269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-s-best-appointment","tag-s-appointment","tag-s-greatest-coach","tag-s-john-longmire-coup","tag-2027-longmire","tag-25-years","tag-a-bloke","tag-a-champion-bomber","tag-a-coach","tag-a-great-thing","tag-a-great-way","tag-a-much-bigger-job","tag-a-really-intimate-way","tag-a-sensational-move","tag-a-whole-football-club-type-job","tag-afl","tag-afl-club","tag-afl-great-tim-watson","tag-all-the-things","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-essendon","tag-essendon-great-tim-watson","tag-first-time-senior-coach-mark-mcveigh","tag-good-fortune","tag-hawthorn","tag-his-failed-trade","tag-his-former-club","tag-john-longmire","tag-just-one-person","tag-last-night","tag-last-season","tag-longmire","tag-mcveigh","tag-new-general-manager","tag-newly-created-role","tag-newswire-sport","tag-north-melbourne","tag-our-football-club","tag-performance-the","tag-recent-club-director","tag-sen","tag-several-coaching-opportunities","tag-some-other-changes","tag-some-other-people","tag-spike","tag-sports","tag-star-midfielder-zach-merrett","tag-sydney","tag-that-fire","tag-that-itch","tag-the-belly","tag-the-bombers","tag-the-club","tag-the-dons-speaking","tag-the-football-club","tag-the-football-department","tag-the-game","tag-the-last-25-years","tag-the-praises","tag-the-tassie-job","tag-the-vacant-position","tag-the-way","tag-their-selection-search","tag-tullamarine","tag-watson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909269","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=909269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}