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Origin I LIVE from 9pm tonightHinkley wouldn’t go for Dons gig if it’s “Hird’s job”
Andrew Slevison • May 27th, 2026 12:24 pm
Ken Hinkley believes the spectre of James Hird looming over the Essendon job will turn a lot of prospective applicants away.
Premiership captain and former coach Hird stated his desire to again coach his beloved Bombers in the wake of Brad Scott’s sacking.
As a very recently departed coach following his time at Port Adelaide, Hinkley’s name is one that will undoubtedly be thrown into the mix at Tullamarine.
With that, Hinkley says the club has a very obvious decision to make.
“I think it's really clear, Essendon now have to decide before anything else, before they ask any other person, they have to decide whether James Hird is going to be their coach,” Hinkley said on SEN’s Whateley.
“If they decide that, that's what they should go with and they should do that. But I can't imagine anyone entering the race for the Essendon coaching job, with James now looking like he's one out, one back in the pole position with all the things that have gone on in the past.
“It looks like this is somewhat James Hird's job and Essendon have got to decide if that is actually the way Essendon want to rebuild their club, they've got every right to do that, but they need to clear the air with that first.”
Hinkley himself intimated that he personally wouldn’t go through the process if Hird is anywhere near it.
Gerard Whateley asked him: “Would that go for you, that you wouldn't put yourself into any sort of process if invited until Essendon decided what James Hird's position was?”
Hinkley replied: “Yeah, absolutely. I don't think anyone would be prepared to be in the race too deep, unless you're in some ways involved with Essendon, I suppose, in their history.
“So I think that would be really important to me. I watched everything last night, I watched Brad, I watched James, and it looked to me like it's James Hird or then someone else.
“It's not James Hird ‘or’ someone else. It's James Hird or ‘then’ someone else and that’s the way Essendon are setting it up. (President) Andrew (Welsh) is setting it up that way by the look of it from what I can see and understand.
“I think they have every right to do what they want to do and that's their call.”
“I’m not going to sit here and try and judge the right or the wrong way. It's just what you do get out of Essendon is you get some clarity at the moment about the way they think they can fix things, I think.
“That is purely around a strong Essendon backbone. And that's what it looks like. And it looks like with the people involved at the moment, that's the way they're going to sail this ship and good on them for having a course and having a direction they want to take.”
Does Hinkley think it's possible to coach after such a long absence from the game?
Hird has not coached at AFL level since 2015 and has only had a short stint with GWS in 2022 and has spent the past few years involved with VFL club Port Melbourne.
“It'll be challenging. I don't think it's impossible, but it would be challenging. And James himself said last night he's been doing some stuff at Port Melbourne for three or four years,” Hinkley continued.
“So he's kept his mind in footy, clearly. He's kept his mind in Essendon, there's no doubt about that.
“The art of coaching is not one person. The art of coaching is as a team and a collective of people and getting the very, very best people. If that's your starting point, the coach can be successful whether he's been in it for five minutes or whether he hasn't been in it for 10 years or he's been in it like me for the last 13 years and like a John Longmire or like Adam Simpson.
“So, there's plenty of options that you can do it different ways, but the reality of all those people is they need a group of people surrounding them to make sure it's a really strong team because it's not just a coach. Unfortunately, that's what happens in our game. The coach is the one whose head is on the line and he gets replaced. That's just what footy is always and will always be. It's because that's the only way we can do it.”
Listen to Hinkley on the Hird situation below:
