A message for J Hird

[gringo]

If you are serious about coaching at Essendon, go and get an assistant coaching position with a different team first. I don't want to see you at Essendon until you've served, at a minimum, three years as a fulltime assistant coach under a SUCCESSFUL and PROVEN head coach.

Unless you are prepared to do this hit the showers and stop making waves. The days where a prominent footballer could waltz into a senior coaching position are well and truly over, particularly when said player spent their whole career under one coach whose methods have dated quicker than milk in the sun.

[lozza89]

If you are serious about coaching at Essendon, go and get an assistant coaching position with a different team first. I don't want to see you at Essendon until you've served, at a minimum, three years as a fulltime assistant coach under a SUCCESSFUL and PROVEN head coach.

Unless you are prepared to do this hit the showers and stop making waves. The days where a prominent footballer could waltz into a senior coaching position are well and truly over, particularly when said player spent their whole career under one coach whose methods have dated quicker than milk in the sun.

Maybe not a different team, but definately as some sort of assistant coaching position first. I would love if we did something like Collingwood and give him an apprenticeship kinda of thing, then he goes on to become head coach. Ideally i would love it to be under Mark Williams, but if it has to be under Knights, so be it.
Dont just throw him straight in the deep end, give him some time to understand exactly what he has to do to become a coach of one of the biggest sporting teams in the country!

[gringo]

If you are serious about coaching at Essendon, go and get an assistant coaching position with a different team first. I don't want to see you at Essendon until you've served, at a minimum, three years as a fulltime assistant coach under a SUCCESSFUL and PROVEN head coach.

Unless you are prepared to do this hit the showers and stop making waves. The days where a prominent footballer could waltz into a senior coaching position are well and truly over, particularly when said player spent their whole career under one coach whose methods have dated quicker than milk in the sun.

Maybe not a different team, but definately as some sort of assistant coaching position first. I would love if we did something like Collingwood and give him an apprenticeship kinda of thing, then he goes on to become head coach. Ideally i would love it to be under Mark Williams, but if it has to be under Knights, so be it.
Dont just throw him straight in the deep end, give him some time to understand exactly what he has to do to become a coach of one of the biggest sporting teams in the country!

How is he going to do an "apprenticeship" under Knights? It's like cruising around with the Highway Patrol in some feral outer suburb of Melbourne for 6 months and then knocking on Simon Overland's door telling him you want his job because you've booked 200 motorists for speeding!

And if Knights was replaced at the end of the year (he won't be) a new coach is not going to want to have Hird as an assistant considering all of the conjecture and speculation that that would bring.

Hird needs to go to a club like Geelong, St Kilda, Collingwood, Adelaide or Hawthorn, do his three years, and then come and see us. To come out and make a statement like "coaching Essendon is deep in my heart" suggests that Hird either doesn't understand what is required to be a head coach in the AFL, or he just enjoys the attention such comments bring.

[little_ripper]

Hird would say if he needed an apprenticeship. Jimmy is one of those guys who is a complete success at whatever he puts his hand to.

If he reckons he could go in and coach the bombers from the get go, I'd back him.

[gringo]

Hird would say if he needed an apprenticeship. Jimmy is one of those guys who is a complete success at whatever he puts his hand to.

If he reckons he could go in and coach the bombers from the get go, I'd back him.

Small recipe for disaster?

[hop]

At this point I'd back ANYONE with a Plan A and a Plan B.

Hird probably isn't an ideal replacement atm.

If I was made Chairman for the day I'd be writng a cheque for Knighta - writing another for Chocco and then demanding that Hirdy spends a couple of years working with Chocco and the team in what ever capacity and with what ever title he feels comfortable with. With the view that he will eventually have full control of coaching at EFC.

At this point in time (and I mean from now to the start of season 2011) the club needs to do some serious damage control and attempt to reclaim the brand. Otherwise we will suffer consequences from players, sponsors, members and fans.
I've not know serious membership discontent since the final days of Barry Davis - and that was horse and buggy stuff compared to modern football and the organisation that EFC has become.

[little_ripper]

Hird would say if he needed an apprenticeship. Jimmy is one of those guys who is a complete success at whatever he puts his hand to.

If he reckons he could go in and coach the bombers from the get go, I'd back him.

Small recipe for disaster?

Well last time we replaced a guy who had won 4 flags, coached plenty of finals and built sides up with a bloke who had a couple of years assisting the downfall of the once mighty Port Magpies, then coached the essendon seconds to cellar dwellar status as well.

So I don't think now Hird has such huge boots to fill. Knights has done a good job in lowering expectations post Sheedy.

As a side note Sheeds doesn't think Hird needs an apprenticeship. And thats coming from the bloke who coached Bomber Thompson, Neil Daniher,Mark Harvey and Damian Hardwick.(guys who have had to do apprenticeships before taking on the top job at an AFL club)

[gringo]

Hird would say if he needed an apprenticeship. Jimmy is one of those guys who is a complete success at whatever he puts his hand to.

If he reckons he could go in and coach the bombers from the get go, I'd back him.

Small recipe for disaster?

Well last time we replaced a guy who had won 4 flags, coached plenty of finals and built sides up with a bloke who had a couple of years assisting the downfall of the once mighty Port Magpies, then coached the essendon seconds to cellar dwellar status as well.

So I don't think now Hird has such huge boots to fill. Knights has done a good job in lowering expectations post Sheedy.

As a side note Sheeds doesn't think Hird needs an apprenticeship. And thats coming from the bloke who coached Bomber Thompson, Neil Daniher,Mark Harvey and Damian Hardwick.(guys who have had to do apprenticeships before taking on the top job at an AFL club)

Has Sheedy said anything sensible in the past 5 years? The game had passed him by in a coaching sense by 2005. From a marketing perspective he's liquid gold, but as far as coaching a club, forget it. He's done and dusted, and has been for some time.

Coaching is a profession in itself and requires skills and attributes that do not necessarily cross over into the playing sphere. Hird needs to do the hard yards under a different program first.

Anyone who thinks a great player will turn out to be a great coach by virtue of the fact they were a great player is kidding themselves.

[auditor]

Would love to see James coach us.
Let's face it if you love something like he loves Essendon then you are more likely to achieve a great deal more.

[Windy_Hill]

Agree Gringo

Trust me, the gloss will rub off very quickly after the first three losses. The fans will not know how to react, after all, this is the great James Hird, then slowly, but surely, we will start to resent him and the board for making such dumb choices - why didnt they just offer Hird an assistant's role, why couldnt they have got an experienced head coach etc, etc, etc.

Hird should know better - if he loves this club as much as his says he does - he shoud keep his nose out of the trough.

I am just stunned by how we are seduced by the romanticism of Hird coaching the club - and romanticism is all it is at the moment. Dont get me wrong, I would love for Hird and other Essendon greats to always have a role at the club and that could include coaching. But right now, Darren Bewick would be the better choice if you really wanted an ex-Essendon player.

Or, wait 2-3 years and have a choice of Dean Bailey, Damien Hardwick, Mark Harvey, Bomber Thompson.

If it is to be Hird, and his presence would certainly have morale boosting value - no question about that, then he must do his apprenticeship under an experienced senior coach like Mark Williams

[ealesy]

Hird would say if he needed an apprenticeship. Jimmy is one of those guys who is a complete success at whatever he puts his hand to.

If he reckons he could go in and coach the bombers from the get go, I'd back him.

Small recipe for disaster?

Well last time we replaced a guy who had won 4 flags, coached plenty of finals and built sides up with a bloke who had a couple of years assisting the downfall of the once mighty Port Magpies, then coached the essendon seconds to cellar dwellar status as well.
So I don't think now Hird has such huge boots to fill. Knights has done a good job in lowering expectations post Sheedy.

As a side note Sheeds doesn't think Hird needs an apprenticeship. And thats coming from the bloke who coached Bomber Thompson, Neil Daniher,Mark Harvey and Damian Hardwick.(guys who have had to do apprenticeships before taking on the top job at an AFL club)

I no Knighter fan, but let's not go rewriting history, wasn't he only at Port Adelaide for a year, if so I don't think he can be solely blamed for their demise. In terms of his time at Bendigo, he coached them to cellar dwellers? Really? They were cellar dwellers when he got there. He cocahed them to finals in 2 of his 3 years there, getting as far as the preliminary final in 2005 I believe it was. Before he got there, Bendigo had never played finals before.

[Rover 7]

Hey hang on we have to go through a process.Powerpoint presentations counless interviews. how you hold your knife and fork.

That's the new way forward you know.

Hirdy wouldn't waste his time and neither would any half decent candidate.

[gringo]

Hey hang on we have to go through a process.Powerpoint presentations counless interviews. how you hold your knife and fork.

That's the new way forward you know.

Hirdy wouldn't waste his time and neither would any half decent candidate.

Just occasionally dabble in reality do you Rover 7?

[robbie67]

I dont really want either Choco or Hird, but lets face it, if it isnt them, it's not likely to be anyone. Which leaves Knights. That alone makes Choco or Hird a viable option for me.

[Rover 7]

Hey hang on we have to go through a process.Powerpoint presentations counless interviews. how you hold your knife and fork.

That's the new way forward you know.

Hirdy wouldn't waste his time and neither would any half decent candidate.

Just occasionally dabble in reality do you Rover 7?

I'll get with the new age eventually.

[Rossoneri]

Here is a sobering thought. James Hird gave his jumper to Brent Stanton. He is obviously a poor judge of talent and gives us no chance of actually trading him.

I don't care who you are, Hird needs to do an apprenticeship somewhere else or at least be under a good coach at Essendon. As well as that, he needs assistants who are also competent.

Lets go through our assistants:
Hickmott - went a whole season at Bendigo without winning a game. Either side of that, Knights got them into a final and Shannon Grant is currently doing the same
Campo - If you want to play the "he comes from a successful team", he was there when Carlton were turned into a basket case, then came to Essendon when we were a basket case.
O'Donnell - won a premiership with us and 3 with Lions as an assistant. However, has been at Essendon since 2005 (I think) and either has no balls to say something or didn't do much at the Lions, merely tagged along. For years now, we have had no set up at all from the center clearances and defensive kick-ins, yet this still has not been addressed.

While Knights did choose these guys and is to blame for our lack of improvement, it is not solely his fault.

If Hirdy wants to be coach, then fine. But I would suggest that he tries and poach Bomber Thompson after he is done with Geelong tearing everyone a new one, or a Paul Roos or someone of that ilk.

[Windy_Hill]

Roos interests me. Seems to be able to extract the best from limited resources. Astute and thoughtful approach to the game and seems a leader of men.

But...the guy has been pussy whipped by his Mrs and has to take time off to football to spend with the family.

If he was available (and whos to say an offer to coach a big Melbourne team wouldnt tempt him) then I would love to see him and Hird working together - Hird learning the ropes from an innovative and succesful coach.

Then throw in Dean Laidly as another assistant....Boom, you got yourself a potentially great coaching line-up

[Jazz_84]

Paul Roos has already signed up as head coach of a development group for Sydney

[Windy_Hill]

Paul Roos has already signed up as head coach of a development group for Sydney

A development group - wtf is that?

I am talking about Essendon Football Club - one of this country's sporting icons. Tell me he wouldnt be just a little interested in the challenging of returning this club to its former glory.

[Gyoza]

Pass the hat around...Paul Roos' wife must be assassinated.