James Hird Expresses Desire to Return as Essendon Coach
James Hird has expressed his desire to return as Essendon’s senior coach if the opportunity arises. Speaking on Nine’s Footy Classified, Hird was directly asked about the top job vacancy hours after Essendon president Andrew Welsh refused to rule out his potential return.
Hird said he would take the top job if directly asked but wanted the club to go through a rigorous process to find the “best” leader to replace Brad Scott. “If the club came to me and said, ‘Would you be part of that process?’ I would definitely say yes. That is something I’d love to be part of,” Hird said on Footy Classified.
“And if I’m the best man for the job, yes, I would love to do that job. But if I’m not, choose the best man, and let’s go forward with this club and make it the best club in the AFL again.”
Hird made his ambitions clear but reiterated he didn’t want a free pass back to the coaching box. Instead, his primary concern for Essendon was the long-term success of the club. “I’m not saying that this job is mine or I need to do the job. I’m saying let’s go through a process and let’s see who the best person for the job is, and I’d like to go through that process,” Hird said.
“Things have changed, and things have changed at the club. It’s gone to the position…. (where it) hasn’t been performing well, and that’s distressing for me because, as I said, I’ve loved being part of that football club and being part of the journey. So the most important thing for me as an Essendon person, and what I want to see that football club do … is for them to go through the most exhaustive process possible to find the best person to be the coach of the Essendon Football Club.”
Essendon’s Struggles and the Search for a New Coach
The Bombers sit 18th on the ladder with nearly 20 players on their injury list. They have won just one of their last 24 games, dating back to early 2025. Scott, who was contracted for 2027, took over as coach following the 2022 season. He becomes the second AFL head coach sacked this year, after Carlton moved on Michael Voss.
Just a day after being sacked, Scott revealed a shock disagreement he had with the club in response to the Zach Merrett situation that has haunted Essendon over the last year. He had a blunt response when asked if keeping Merrett was his idea, lifting the lid on the balance of power in the executive room.
“No. My view was that we should let (Zach) go, but the club’s view was that we should keep him, and again, my view was the club’s view,” Scott revealed on Agenda Setters.
Hird’s Past and Current Role
Hird, one of Essendon’s greatest ever players, departed the club as coach in 2015 following the supplement saga that derailed his coaching tenure and led to the suspensions of more than 30 players for a full season. He served as senior coach between 2011 and 2015, skipping 2014 due to the ongoing investigation.
When asked on Tuesday if he had spoken to Hird about the role, Welsh said he hadn’t, but wouldn’t rule his former teammate out of the running, despite past controversies. “We’re not ruling anybody in or out of this,” Welsh said. “I’m sure there will be a lot of people interested in this role.”
Welsh, the club president, and current interim coach Dean Solomon, both returned to the club in recent years after playing at the Bombers. The return of Hird or any other ex-Essendon players to the club is not something the president will shy away from either.
“I hear a lot around old Essendon, new Essendon, boys club. I look at other clubs … respectfully, Sam Mitchell has gone back to Hawthorn and is doing an amazing job, Justin Longmuir over at Fremantle, Josh Carr’s gone back to (coach) Port Adelaide,” he said. “I think there’s really good history around players going back to a club and the right people for those groups going back to their clubs. I don’t shy away from Essendon people being great people. I want great people involved in the footy club.”
Support for Hird’s Return
On Tuesday morning, Melbourne champion Garry Lyon said the club should turn back to Hird, saying it would remain fractured until he got another chance at the top job. “The James Hird factor, I know people will roll their eyes, but I said this six weeks ago and I have no allegiance to the Bombers, but there is no clear air at that footy club until such time as he is given his go,” Lyon told SEN.
“This paves the way for the return of Hird. I may be way off the mark, but that’s how I’m reading it. All I’m saying is my observations as an impartial with access to the supporter base. I know there’s emotion attached to it. I just get the feeling that it doesn’t matter what they do. There’s a pro- and anti-Hird camp, and it’s going to remain a fractured footy club until he gets a go.”
Essendon champion Tim Watson, in response to Lyon, said there will always be a strong push for Hird at Tullamarine. “There are a lot of Essendon people who I know, some are financial backers of the club, others are people I know who I’ve met over the years who are fans of the club and I get the feeling that there is a very strong push from a lot of people out there to get James back at Essendon coaching,” Watson said.
However, Watson said the club must undergo a thorough hiring process, saying they can’t hand the job to the club legend. “You run a proper coach search. That’s what you do. That’s what good clubs do. We ran the process last time, Scott was chosen, and for whatever reason (it hasn’t worked). This is not about a messiah. This has to be a strategic appointment. You would want somebody who has had experience, who understands the lay of the land, who is happy to buy into the club’s strategy and that is a rebuild, trying to accumulate young talent and building a solid foundation, but they need a developer of talent. In discussions I’ve had with Hird, he does understand a lot about development and has done a lot of work in that area.”
Essendon’s Future and Challenges
Welsh confirmed on Tuesday morning that the club was “not comfortable” with the current performance of the group. “Brad is a resilient, stoic leader who gave everything to this football club and to the people in it. He came to Essendon with a clear set of values and he never compromised them, through good times and difficult ones,” Welsh said via a statement.
“We appreciate the sacrifices he made for our club and thank him for his commitment and professionalism. Brad leaves a legacy with the decisions he made in building our list which were always club first. Ultimately, whilst we know we are a young team, we are not comfortable with our current position which led us to meet as a board to assess and make a decision on the future of the senior coach position.”
Only last week, a defiant Scott said the club was three years into a rebuild and that the whole club was aligned on that strategy. “Everyone has been part of that strategy and plan … our president and CEO were on the board when the strategy was put together,” Scott told Fox Footy after the Fremantle loss. “So they are all in on it. But I don’t think like that (on whether he has the club’s backing). It’s just unhelpful. My job is to lead this strategy through and I just do my job. I don’t worry too much about what might happen in the future.”
Welsh backed that sentiment up in his statement, saying the club remained on the rebuilding path. “While long-term decisions have been clear and provide great hope for our future, we still need to show progress week to week, and we haven’t seen that this year. These are genuinely difficult decisions, and we do not take them lightly but the cumulative nature of our losses and the key performance indicators set by the club at the start of the season are not trending in the right direction.”
“The Dons have been battered by injuries across the last two seasons, but haven’t won a game in Victoria since May of 2025. Hird departed the role following the 2015 season in the wake of the supplement saga that rocked the club. Scott coached North Melbourne for a decade between 2010 and 2019, leading them to two preliminary finals appearances. He resigned halfway through the 2019 season and took up an administrative role at the AFL. The Bombers lured him out of AFL House in September of 2022, following the sacking of coach Ben Rutten. Essendon heads to Perth this Sunday to take on West Coast.”
