James Hird has expressed his desire to coach Essendon for a second time, 11 years after his sacking in the wake of the Essendon supplements saga.
AFL great James Hird says he’s been “very conscious” to avoid contacting Essendon president Andrew Welsh in the past week, declaring he doesn’t want to be “spoiling the process” of the club’s coaching search .
But Hird insists he still wants another crack at coaching the Bombers and would still “love to be part of the process”. Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports |WHAT'S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.
His declaration of his desire to coach his beloved Bombers for a second time – 11 years after his sacking in the wake of the Essendon supplements saga – “It’s been interesting. I thought the days of me being chased down the streets by cameras on motorbikes were well and truly gone, but we went back to that last week,” Hird told“There were a lot of stories, some true, some not true, some speculating.
A lot of opinions about what I should do or shouldn’t do. But for me, I stand by what I said last : I’d love to be part of the process and see what happens.
“It just got bigger and bigger and bigger all week to the point on the weekend, it felt like it was all-consuming for the football world. It certainly wasn’t my intention. ” Hird insisted he hadn’t reached out to the Bombers – nor had the club contacted him – and had no intention to accelerate the situation.
“Andrew Welsh is a good friend of mine, we’ve been friends for 20 years,” Hird said. “I coached Andrew in his last game back in 2011 and I’ve known him since he was a young kid. “I have been very conscious not to reach out to him because I think that is spoiling the process, and actually inserting myself in a way that I don’t want to.
“I want Essendon, as I said the other night, to go about and go through an exhausting process – and if I am the candidate that they choose, fantastic. If I’m not, I’m not.
“But in terms of contacting Essendon or being contacted by them, that hasn’t happened. ” Asked if he wanted to know if he’d be part of an Essendon coach contenders shortlist, Hird said: “I don’t ‘hope’ to do anything, I don’t ‘hope’ for anything.
“What I want is for the process to be an exhaustive process … and I’d like to be part of that process. If it happens in two weeks, three weeks – it’s their timeline and they should set the best process possible.
Let’s give them the air and the space to do that.that Hird had “spoken to a lot of his close associates” and begun to assemble “Team Hird” to form a core support group should he be successful in his pitch. Some of the names Gullan reported included Mark McVeigh, Dean Solomon, Brendan McCartney, Dyson Heppell, Jimmy Bartel and even Michael Voss.
When asked about the report on Tuesday night, Hird said things formally “haven’t got to that level”, but acknowledged he’d thought deeply about a possible support network.
“Obviously, you think about who you’d like. You’ve got people in the football world who you respect and who you’d like to work with,” Hird said.
“But putting a team together hasn’t happened … but you don’t get to this point now and not have been thinking about it day and night about how you would put it together. ” Asked when he’d start to prepare for a seemingly inevitable interview with the Bombers, Hird said: “I think I’ve been preparing for this interview for the last 35 to 40 years. ”
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