Essendon will speak to Hird in their coaching search. Here’s who he could be up against

Essendon have revealed the criteria for their next senior coach and will speak with 10 to 15 candidates either with senior coaching experience or who are highly rated assistants.

On Friday, the Bombers also announced the panel to select the new coach, which will feature president Andrew Welsh, vice president Anthony Di Pietro, board members Ted Richards and Tim Roberts, and HR executive Caroline Monzon.

While no external people are on the panel, the Bombers said they would “draw on subject matter experts from both within the club and outside it to inform our assessment and decision-making”.

James Hird, the former champion and coach who has signalled public interest in the role, will be among the candidates that the panel speaks to.

The club said that reports Welsh had endorsed Dean Solomon, his friend and former teammate who is interim coach, for the permanent role, were incorrect. Solomon could still decide to nominate for the process, but has been focusing on his role as interim coach.

It is an open process with no requirement that applicants be “an Essendon person” or have a Bombers background – a criterion pushed by Essendon coaching legend Kevin Sheedy supporting Hird.

The field of candidates for Essendon is certain to overlap with some of those assistant coaches who will be on the list of 10 or so that Carlton will be speaking to in the coming weeks.

Carlton’s process, though, is viewed as most likely to settle on an assistant coach, with the likes of Fremantle’s Jaymie Graham, St Kilda’s Corey Enright, Geelong pair James Kelly and James Rahilly, Collingwood’s Hayden Skipworth, Brisbane’s Cam Bruce, and Hawthorn’s David Hale and Daniel Giansiracusa among the potential candidates for Carlton, whose caretaker coach Josh Fraser is unbeaten in five games but has not yet wavered from his stance that he would not seek the role.

Some of these assistant coaches can be counted on to be in the mix for Essendon.

It is not clear, at this stage, whether Sydney’s 2012 premiership coach John Longmire will be part of either the Essendon or Carlton processes, but Longmire has not ruled out speaking to either club and has spoken to the Tasmania Devils about their inaugural senior coaching position.

The Bombers feel that their panel has people with sufficient experience in external organisations – in Richards, who is a premiership player with the Swans (2012), and Di Pietro, who has appointed coaches at A-League club Melbourne Victory, where he was chairman.

Hird’s candidacy – and whether his ex-teammate Solomon will seek the job – will be a major external focus, following Hird’s declaration on Nine’s Footy Classified that he wanted to pursue the coaching position again, having coached the Bombers in the 2011-13 seasons and then, following an AFL suspension, for most of the 2015 season. He has since worked at GWS in 2022, helping his friend and former teammate Mark McVeigh when the latter was interim coach for the last 13 games of that season. Hird is currently coaching director at VFL club Port Melbourne, working with former Essendon assistant and ex-Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney.

In revealing their criteria on Friday in a letter to members, the Bombers said, “development and connection are major priorities for our emerging list, as are our culture, environment and overall football structure”, and that the new coach would be aligned with the club’s strategy.

“We have spent the past month consulting with our board, executive, football staff, coaches and players on what the success profile looks like for the next senior coach of the club. This has been a detailed process to form the brief and criteria for our search,” the letter said.

“Our next coach will inherit a group with its best football ahead of it and the opportunity to shape a team capable of consistently competing for finals and premierships,” they said in a letter to members.

“Unsurprisingly, there has already been strong interest in the role, both publicly and privately.

“We are confident in our direction, and equally confident in the coach we will appoint to help lead us there.”

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