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Watson plays down Hird return in reported Essendon shake-up
Andrew Slevison • May 20th, 2025 9:39 am
Essendon great Tim Watson has played down suggestions that James Hird and former chairman Paul Little could one day return to the club in a sensational shake-up.
Channel 7’s Caroline Wilson reported on Monday night that Little would not rule out a future push to return to the Bombers in the role he held a decade ago.
It was suggested that a possible Little return would also include the sensational comeback of Hird as senior coach.
“We can reveal that Paul Little, the former chairman of the Essendon Football Club, and very generous benefactor, who was there as chairman during 2013, ‘14 and ‘15 — those acrimonious days — has not ruled out, in fact has left the door very much open, to a return to the Essendon board,” Wilson said on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.
“A return that, in my view, would include James Hird as coach.
“All year, this story has been festering. Kevin Sheedy, who left the board, Adrian Dodoro, who left the club in really highly acrimonious circumstances — well, there have been barbs from both at various people at the club.
“But we had started to hear, after the club had re-signed Brad Scott until the end of 2027, that there was some unrest from some of the old guard who weren’t happy about the re-signing, didn’t think it was necessary.
“James Hird has returned to coaching as an assistant at Port Melbourne. So The Agenda Setters called Paul Little today (Monday) and put this scenario to him and I can tell you that this is what he told us:
‘You never say never to anything. It hasn’t been an easy time for the club these past few years. There may come a time when there is a need for a restructure. If I felt I could add value to the club, and if they felt I could help, then I would consider it.’
“I asked him about James. My belief is that James Hird still harbours an ambition to coach Essendon, I am absolutely convinced of that.
“Paul Little would not go any further with me on James Hird today, he said that was a conversation for another time.”
Hird himself was shocked by the news.
“It’s news to me and I haven’t spoken to Paul Little for months,” he said on Channel 9.
“I nearly fell off the couch when I heard it.”
In response, former Dons captain Watson played down the suggestions.
While he does no qualms with Wilson's reporting, he does doubt if anything will come from the outside agitation.
Watson was asked by co-host Garry Lyon: Would Paul Little return to the footy club?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Watson replied on SEN Breakfast.
“I know that in the past he has attempted to gather forces around James. This is a couple of years ago before the club appointed Brad Scott as the coach - that didn’t go anywhere.
“I find it a curious thing to be putting out there on the agenda now given that there was a bad loss on the weekend.”
Watson is of the belief that this sort of chatter is a form of agitation from a small minority of Essendon people.
“I believe it is,” he added.
“James Hird is a very much loved figure at the Essendon Football Club.
“My thought is that it is a small group of agitators and it won’t go anywhere. It’s not something that’s new and it’s something that has been around for a while.
“In my view, Essendon needs consolidation. That’s exactly what the Board is trying to provide at the moment.”
Lyon then asked: Do you think this is a disaffected former employee that is looking to destabilise the club by leaking? And would Adrian Dodoro be one of them?
“I think there are people who are no longer at the club who will continue to do this,” he replied.
“What they’re doing is they’re putting their own needs, their own egos, their own selves before the club that they profess that they love.
“I would think that there are people out there who are agitators who are no longer at the club. I couldn’t put a name to it but I believe that there would be people out there who are.”
Furthermore, Watson says he speaks to his 1993 premiership teammate Hird regularly and doesn’t feel that the five-time best and fairest is seeking a coaching reinstatement.
“It doesn’t appear to me that he’s got the desire to go back and coach,” said Watson.
“He’s very much invested in the game, he loves the game, but I don’t think he’s trying to get back to Essendon to become the coach.
“I can only tell you as I read it from the people I speak to.”
