Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Olympics
Football
Netball
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Full Noise by SN
Origin I LIVE from 9pm tonight“That’s distressing for me”: Why Hird would love Bombers job
SEN • May 27th, 2026 8:16 am
James Hird says he would “love” to coach Essendon again.
Talk of a possible Hird return has brewed since Brad Scott was sacked by the club on Tuesday morning.
Later the same day, Hird admitted he would be keen on the job.
“The most important thing for me as an Essendon person is for them to go through the most exhaustive process possible to find the best person,” Hird said on Channel 9’s Footy Classified.
“If the club came to me and said, ‘would you be part of that process?’, I would definitely say yes.
“It is something I’d love to be part of, to pit my wares against the other coaches and see if I’m the best man for the job.
“If I’m the best man for the job, yes, I would love to do that job.
“If I’m not, choose the best man and let’s go forward and make it the best club in the AFL again.”
Hird denied he was interested in coaching when asked about the gig at the Bombers last year.
But he says that things have changed since, and seeing Essendon lose week after week has become "distressing".
“Honestly, at that time, I wasn’t in a position to coach and it wasn’t on my mind or something I wanted to do,” he said.
“They had a coach who was doing reasonably well, but things have changed.
“The club has gotten to the position where they’ve won one game in 27, it hasn’t been performing well - and that’s distressing for me, because, as I said, I’ve loved being part of that football club and being part of the journey.”
Hird last coached the Dons in 2015, stepping following a string of poor results in the aftermath of the crippling supplements saga.
He’s since briefly held an assistant coaching role at GWS in 2022, and more is currently the director of coaching at VFL club Port Melbourne.
