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Essendon and James Hird have made many mistakes since Hird took over as coach for the 2011 season.
However, the biggest one seems to be Essendon’s initial decision to pick one of their favourite sons to become senior coach, and for Hird to accept.
Hird had been successful in everything else he had done, especially during his stellar playing career, with his media work and business career also developing nicely.
So after the bombers sacked Matthew Knights at the end of the 2010 season and appointed Hird – backed by one of the best, most expensive coaching teams ever, containing Mark Thompson, Brendan McCartney, Sean Wellman and Simon Goodwin – the pressure was on to deliver success straight away.
However, that pressure appears to have got to Hird, and even if his win/loss ratio of 39 wins 36 losses and a draw is solid, Hird as a coach hasn’t worked.
If he wanted to coach – and it appears the Bombers had to work hard to talk him into it – Hird should have done an apprenticeship as an assistant coach, such as Alastair Clarkson, Ross Lyon and John Longmire did.
Instead he employed some questionable techniques to get to the top of the mountain as quickly as possible, and his reputation as the squeaky clean boy next door has taken a battering in the wake of the supplements scandal. It will take years for the club’s reputation to recover as well.
The club and Hird should have ended their association when Hird was suspended for 12 months, which should have been without pay, but he returned this season. After a promising start to 2015, the Dons are playing the worst brand of football they have under Hird. It’s slow and unskilled, with the most dysfunctional forward line I have witnessed take an AFL field for years.
Their recruiting has been below average and so has their trading, because they are so difficult to deal with. With the supplements scandal still hanging over their heads due to WADA’S appeal, the Bombers are a mess.
You can’t see them recovering this year, and even though Hird won many games for this club with individual brilliance, he seems bereft of ideas and passion as coach.
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