CRAIG O’DONOGHUE: Essendon Bombers need to move on from the idea James Hird is always the answer

The obsession with James Hird returning to coach Essendon is one of the most misguided and dumbest things in footy.

Even putting the supplements scandal aside, why would any club appoint a man as coach when he hasn’t been working in the industry full-time?

Hird hasn’t been a Head Coach since 2015 and he’s barely spent any time working at a club since. He spent a short period helping former teammate Mark McVeigh at Greater Western Sydney in 2022. Hird is also supporting Port Melbourne coach Brendan McCartney this season.

But he’s not the coach. Hird has done nothing in the last decade to prove that he can coach, yet some people around Essendon (particularly former president Paul Little) think he’s the answer to every problem.

Hird coached Essendon 85 times and won 41 of those matches. Brad Scott has currently coached Essendon 55 times and had 27 wins. It’s not like Hird had a record that makes him a stand out.

There have been more than 20 coaching changes since Hird left Essendon. If he’s so good, why haven’t other clubs tried to get him on board. Why isn’t Tasmania targeting him to lead their entry to the AFL?

The crazy part about this latest move is that Hird isn’t even the one pushing this agenda. Yes, there was a time when Hird wanted the job. He was interviewed for the position when Scott was appointed. But even he was shocked by the latest news.

“I nearly fell off the couch when I heard it,” Hird said when asked about the push for him to return.

Hird was a star. He won a Brownlow Medal, a Norm Smith Medal, five best and fairests and is a five-time All-Australian. Hird made the ball sing.

But the reality is Hird’s legacy at Essendon and in football was tarnished by the supplements scandal. That entire saga showed the dangers of appointing coaches who don’t have experience.

Hird was hand picked to coach the Bombers and made key mistakes which Essendon still haven’t recovered from. Bringing him back would only bring those problems back to the surface and that’s the last thing the club needs.

The Bombers need stability. Since Kevin Sheedy finished up at the end of 2007 they’ve been led by Matthew Knights, Hird, Mark Thompson, Hird again after he completed a suspension, John Worsfold, Ben Rutten and now Scott. Instability destroys clubs. If Little truly cares about the club succeeding, he needs to understand that he’s part of the problem.

Essendon hasn’t won a final since 2004. That means a generation of kids have grown up being told they support a massive club but are yet to actually see anything that even resembles success.

Many of those people aren’t old enough to remember Hird as a player and they’d barely remember him as a coach. Those people will have kids of their own soon and will be responsible for handing on the legacy of being a Bombers fan. That’s the club’s future.

I’ve been an Essendon fan for more than 40 years. Here’s what the club needs to do. Recruit well. Develop those players. Stop looking for short term solutions. Tell the agitators in the background to shut up and get out of the way.

James Hird isn’t the answer. It’s time to move on. Actually, it was time to move on a decade ago.