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James Hird had to go. This is beyond dispute, unless you’re the chief football writer at the Herald-Sun.
We often hear it wondered, “Why is it always the coach that has to go, and not the players?”
More:
>>RYAN BUCKLAND: James Hird is gone, and he shouldn’t be the last
>> James Hird resigns as Essendon coach
>> Essendon and James Hird press conference – live updates
What happens on the field drives all action and discussion off it. How often do you hear of an unstable football department or board when a club is winning? Disagreements are a part of life, but these become “divides” when the team is losing.
The backroom politics is for those involved at the club, and maybe the odd journo looking to get a scoop and cause a minor stir. The on-field performance is the only thing we really see.
Winning unites. Losing divides. Lose badly enough for long enough, and it ultimately conquers the job of the senior coach.
There’s a difference between bad teams playing bad football, and a group of men playing spiritless football.
When there is a disconnect to such an extent whereby the Essendon players were putting up the kind of abject performances they had been, the coach has to go. He simply must.
The first woeful Bomber performance of the year was in Round 10, against Geelong, where they were flatly embarrassed, not kicking a goal until half-time on the way to a 69-point loss.
Round 14 was the next step on the path to the demise of James Hird. Somewhat overshadowed by falling on the same weekend as the tragic death of Adelaide coach Phil Walsh, the Bombers were eviscerated by St Kilda, to the tune of 110 points.
The next week saw the proverbial dead-cat bounce, with a win over Melbourne, in what turned out to be James Hird’s last victory as coach.
The Dogs took Essendon to the cleaners in Round 18, in an 87-point humiliation.
The final nail in Hird’s coffin was Adelaide bolting away to a 112-point demolition on the weekend, including an 11-goal final term to the Crows.
Whether James Hird can actually coach a team to play successful football may never be known. His self-belief has certainly never wavered, confirmed in his departure press conference, with his quotationo of “I believe I am a good coach”.
Obviously the ASADA saga has stripped him of any clean air to ply his trade unencumbered. How much responsibility he should wear for that saga is another topic altogether.
The Essendon Football Club has made many poor decisions over the last four years, almost too many to document or detail. But the decision to accept the resignation of James Hird is the right one, and the only one.
Perhaps James Hird deserved his second chance, in the form of coaching this season. But once the on-field performance degenerated into decay, he didn’t deserve to see it though.
He may once have been the right man for the job, but that is no longer the case. The Bombers may not know who the right coach is, but they now know who it isn’t.
The on-field is what people see, and that is what they judge the club on. The coach is the face of that, as he must be.
That’s the responsibility all coaches take on when they are appointed. In many ways, it is not always fair and just, but it is always right.