{"id":944358,"date":"2026-10-28T20:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T20:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944358\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T20:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T20:46:19","slug":"james-hird-lands-new-gig-as-head-of-sport-for-ai-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944358\/","title":{"rendered":"James Hird lands new gig as head of sport for AI company"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David<\/p>\n

October 29, 2026 \u2014 12:01am<\/p>\n

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AFL great James Hird has taken a full-time job with a Melbourne artificial intelligence company \u2013 two months after Essendon chose Mark McVeigh<\/a> over him as senior coach.<\/p>\n

The Brownlow medallist will run a new sports division at Affinda, which is backed by Toll founder and former Essendon chairman Paul Little. Hird will keep his role as director of coaching at VFL club Port Melbourne, which he does after hours and on weekends.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Hird has been appointed global head of Affinda Sports, an Australian AI company.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very much a full-time role, but I will continue my role with Port because it\u2019s something I love,\u201d Hird told this masthead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was disappointed, you know, thoroughly disappointed,\u201d he said of missing out on the Essendon job. After the decision, he sat down with Affinda chief executive Tim Toner. \u201cI was sort of like, well, why don\u2019t we create something in sport that hasn\u2019t really been done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in Melbourne in 2012 and run by Toner and his brother, Ben, Affinda sells software that pulls information out of documents, as well as software that law firms use to compare contracts. Toner said it had customers in 85 countries.<\/p>\n

It was valued at $220 million after raising $25 million in February, The Australian Financial Review reported. Little put $15 million into that round.<\/p>\n

\"Ex-EssendonEx-Essendon president Paul Little says there is already some optimism in the business community.Getty<\/p>\n

Asked whether Little had a role in his hiring, Hird said: \u201cNot so much bringing me in, but when I spoke to Paul maybe a year ago about AI and sport, he mentioned that, would I like an introduction to Tim.\u201d Hird said he \u201cput my hand up and said yes, please\u201d.<\/p>\n

Little became Essendon chairman in 2013 and backed Hird through the 12-month ban he accepted from the AFL that year under a settlement over the club\u2019s supplements program.<\/p>\n

Asked why clubs should trust him with their performance data given the supplements saga, Hird pointed to security. \u201cThe data is kept on their servers and with them, we\u2019re providing a tool that they can use within their club and within their safety and within their security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"(Left(Left to right) James Hird and Affinda CEO Tim Toner.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

Toner said Affinda already had \u201cmultiple customers\u201d among sporting organisations in Australia and overseas, but would not name them. \u201cIn the sporting world, there\u2019s a lot more sensitivity around disclosure, particularly around what they\u2019re doing with AI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said sporting organisations had been approaching the company for about 18 months. Affinda initially paid them less attention than its corporate clients, he said, until bigger and better-known clubs started asking what AI could do.<\/p>\n

Hird said he had been using AI at a basic level for about 18 months, in his coaching and in analysing games for television. As he and Toner talked, he said, the possible uses grew. \u201cThe use cases just sort of bounced from five to 50.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Clubs already collect GPS data, Champion Data statistics, gym results, daily wellness data and training and match vision, he said, and AI could help bring it together. He recalled 8am meetings as a coach, deciding which players could train and how much: \u201cCan they have 100 kicks, can they have 20 kicks, can they have 50 kicks.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could help on game day, too. \u201cIn a coaches\u2019 box, it\u2019s very chaotic, and if you can reduce some of that chaos and some of that noise, there\u2019s no doubt you can think more clearly as a coach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Hird started playing, he said, \u201cthe only data you got was your kicks, marks and handballs\u201d. He described Affinda\u2019s work as \u201ccomplementary\u201d to Champion Data, the AFL\u2019s official statistics provider, which is 49 per cent owned by the league.<\/p>\n

Toner said clubs that moved early would pull ahead. \u201cI think what we\u2019ll see in the next 12 months is the first mover advantage is real,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there\u2019ll be a lot of clubs and teams playing catch-up if they\u2019re not really at the front of that wave.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Close\"DavidDavid Swan<\/a> is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 29, 2026 \u2014 12:01am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-944358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944358","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=944358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}