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Essendon's vacancy: Poisoned chalice or lifetime opportunity?

Roar Rookie
25th August, 2015
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Roar Rookie
25th August, 2015
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1107 Reads

Essendon is a football club in turmoil – it has been that way for the best part of three years.

It is now also a football club searching for a new senior coach in the wake of the mutual termination of golden boy James Hird’s inglorious coaching tenure.

The first and most obvious question is, who would actually want to coach Essendon? Any young and ambitious assistant coach would surely look at the club with something of a cautious gaze.

Just five wins from twenty starts this term amid a cloud of negativity and uncertainty. Rumours of player unrest and a potential mass exodus at season’s end. And, of course, the seemingly eternal possibility that a large chunk of the playing group may be banned for up to two years for doping violations, pending the yet to be heard appeal of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

But for all of the problems at Essendon, the club itself remains one of the largest and most financially sound in the league. Every resource an aspiring senior coach could ever dream of would be at their fingertips at the Bombers. There would also be a significant period where expectations would be low given all that has transpired over the past three years.

A lot has been written about Essendon’s so-called ‘messiah culture’. Kevin Sheedy coached the club for 27 years, yielding four premierships in the process. James Hird was lured back to the club despite not serving a coaching apprenticeship of any kind.

In between, the club’s brief dalliance with an outsider in Matthew Knights ended in calamity. Essendon must not be tempted to back a favourite son again and should look to the outside to break the shackles of the past.

Two other clubs – Carlton and Adelaide – have also been going through the process of appointing a new senior coach. Carlton have settled on Brendon Bolton while Adelaide appear to be waiting for their season to conclude before ramping up their own selection process. Essendon should aim to be ahead of the Crows in this process.

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John Worsfold has already ruled himself out of re-joining the coaching ranks. He would have been perfect for Essendon. There are, however, a number of other potential senior coaches who may appeal to Essendon as they commence their search in the coming weeks.

Scott Burns
Highly rated assistant who has served an impressive apprenticeship, first at the West Coast Eagles under Worsfold and now back at Collingwood where he played 265 games. Tough and uncompromising, he would be a great fit for Essendon as they look to build from the ground up.

Stuart Dew
An assistant coach at Sydney since his retirement, Dew has been seen as a senior coach in waiting for a number of years. His experience in successful teams at Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, as well as the Swans in a coaching capacity, is hard to ignore.

Peter Sumich
A potential dark horse for the Essendon job. Sumich is a longtime assistant coach, first at the Eagles under Worsfold and now at Fremantle under Ross Lyon. Seemingly only a whisker away from several senior coaching positions in the past, this could be just the opportunity a man of his experience has been waiting for.

Essendon must choose its next senior coach wisely. Indeed, its next senior coach must choose Essendon wisely, given the unique circumstances the club finds itself in.

However, the chance to coach one of the biggest sporting clubs in Australia is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and should be grasped with enthusiasm by whoever is lucky enough to be chosen.

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