James Hird Article

He was meant to be the saviour. James Hird, Essendon champion, comes back to coach his former team and lead them to the promised land.

He was back to bring them out of the dreadful Matthew Knights era. It was a new dawn for the Bombers and everything was looking up. Or so they thought.

Most of the public would say Hird should be gone already after what has happened to the club since 2013 on the back of the supplements saga, but this has got to do with on-field performance not was is happening off the field.

The question has to be asked, can Hird actually coach?

After this weekend’s brutal 69-point loss (and really it wasn’t even that close) to Geelong, in what was labelled an important game, they were deplorable. The Bombers failed to kick a goal in the first half for the first time since 1984 and pressure is starting to mount Hird.

Essendon sit 4-5 and play West Coast this week and if they play like that way again on the weekend it looks like a 100-point loss could be on the cards. If that happens what will the Bombers do with Hird?

The Bombers currently sit 18th for scoring efficiency and are averaging only 75.6 points per game and have scored under 60 five times already this season. Joe Daniher is still young and inexperienced and Jake Carlisle should be playing down back in his natural position, but John Coleman, Paul Salmon and Matthew Lloyd couldn’t make this team look good.

The game plans needs to be fixed you cannot continue to just bomb the ball inside 50 and hope for a mark each time. It will work against younger and weaker opposition but Essendon are continually found out by the top eight sides.

Hird has brought in the likes of Brendon Goddard, Adam Cooney and Paul Chapman because he believed his side was ready to push for a top-four spot and play multiple finals. But at this rate they will not even get close to a finals spot and it might be time to just blood the youngsters and see what they have to offer.

The likes of Elliott Kavanagh, Orazio Fantasia and Kyle Langford need to be given more games to show what they can do while some of the senior players need to be moved back to the reserves to gain some form.

Most of the AFL world are still shocked that Essendon let dual premiership coach Mark Thompson go at the end of last season after he led the club to the finals last year with a 12-9-1 record. You could say that they should have won that final against North Melbourne. Thompson said he still had a strong desire to coach but the club opted to bring back Hird after his year’s suspension.

Hird had a strong first season as coach in 2011 leading the team to eighth position, but a 62-point thumping at the hands of Carlton hit a downer on his first season as coach. After a tumultuous three years under Matthew Knights, where Essendon had only one finals appearance, a 96-point thumping at the hands of Adelaide and a 14th place finish in 2010, the club thought Hird was the answer.

While for Essendon fans this was a dream come true, their favourite son was back and it was a new beginning, the rest of the AFL world may have questioned the move. Hird had no previous coaching experience and up until late 2010 he had stated that he didn’t want to coach before a huge u-turn. He was almost immediately snapped up to a four-year contract along with former Essendon champion Mark Thompson to help lead the club out of a dark period.

The 2012 season was also a negative for the Bombers. They started the season 8-1 and looked certain for a top-four finish before a spate of soft-tissue injuries and poor form saw them lose 10 of the last 13 games to finish 11th.

While 2013 was a success for the club on-field it was the off-field supplements saga that cost Essendon a finals spot. The club finished 14-8 but once again had a fadeout towards the end of the season.

James Hird is now in his fourth season as head coach and has only one final to his name. Bombers fans are currently looking at another season going down the drain already. Should the Bombers have kept Thompson and let Hird go? It’s too late to change that now and they are suffering for it. It might be time for Essendon to cut their losses.

If they do decide to let Hird go, Essendon must look outside the club when it comes to another head coach. They cannot keep bringing in old players and club greats. It’s time to move on from the boys club and bring in some fresh faces.

Brendon Bolton, Guy McKenna, Leigh Tudor and Stuart Dew are all names that the club should look towards if they make that big decision. They may not go down that path but it is time to ask some serious questions.