Buckley, Longmire, Simpson... or James Hird?! 🤯 Is the Dons champion a chance to return? I Fox Footy

All right, one of the other big, big stories today.Essendon is part of Waze with coach Brad Scott in his fourth season in charge of the famous club.Let's go to Essendon HQ now, where we're joined by our reporter Drew Jones.Drew, hello to you.Have we heard anything from the club on this matter?

Hello, Luke here.We have a statement put out a short time ago by the Bombers.So to bring you up to speed, emergency board meeting last night by the Bombers where they ratified the decision to end Brad Scott's tenure after 80 games in charge of Essendon, roughly three and a half seasons.They've won one of their last 23 games, which equates to one win in the last year of footy at Essendon, culminating in that loss to Richmond in Dreamtime at the G on Friday night.So over the weekend, it was essentially decided that they were not going to push into 2027.with Scott at the helm so the time was right to make this change and enter the coaching market and that means that Brad Scott's tenure is over at the Bombers.

So statement out this morning from the Bombers and Andrew Welsh is quoted here he says Brad is a resilient stoic leader who gave everything to this football club and the people in it.He came to Essendon with a clear set of values and he never compromised them through good times and difficult ones.We appreciate the sacrifices he made for our club and thank you for his commitment.So this is where the meaty stuff comes in, Luke.Ultimately, whilst we know we are a young team, we are not comfortable with our current position, which has led us to meet as a board to assess and make a decision on the future of the senior coach.When looking at the overall progress of our football team this season, it was agreed that we needed a fresh voice to take the club forward in the 2027 season.

Once that decision was made, it would have been unfair fair to have Brad continue as coach any longer and that is why we have brought this decision forward today.So the Bombers take on the Eagles this weekend and we wait to see what they do officially with a press conference at 12 .45 Eastern today.

So Drew we know how the Bombers got to this point this season of course but just more generally with this massive club, coachingcoach after coach, broadly how did we get to this point where they are again looking for another person to lead the football program forward?

Yeah, it's been a couple of decades worth of pain for Essendon, unfortunately, the supplement saga leading to James Heard departing the club, and they haven't quite nailed their coaching appointments since then.You think about Matthew Knights, Bobba Thompson took over for a year, and Ben Rutten, it hasn't gone well for him, and then ultimately Brad Scott trying to rebuild this club over the last couple of years.I think when Brad took over, there was a sense that he might be able to, as he did with North Melbourne, get the playing list united and get them up the ladder and competing, certainly to play finals football.But they haven't been able to get over that big hump of winning that final.It's been a long time between drinks, nearly 24 years now for the footy club.And when they made the decision that they were going to rebuild and go to the draft, they've done so aggressively.

And I guess that's why we get to this point.And there is perhaps a little bit of confusion about The messaging from the club was probably only a month or two that Andrew Welsh said that he believed that Brad Scott could be the next premiership coach here at Essendon.And as they invest so heavily in youth, of course, none of the results are going to be favorable for them.We've seen that so far this season.Unfortunately, they were decimated by injury on Friday night.They had five players in the game get hurt.

And then last year, they had one of the most extraordinary injury crisis that we've seen at AFL level, probably up until Richmond this year.So they were severely hammered last year through injury and availability.They turn over the list, they go to the draft again.So the results were never going to be favourable.Brad Scott wasn't coaching necessarily for himself.He wasn't coaching for wins.

He was coaching to develop this team on a long -term plan.So unfortunately for Brad, that hasn't helped him and Essendon have decided to go a different way.

Drew, great to catch up with you.It has been mooted in the last little while, but now confirmation a short time ago.What did the club have to say?

Hello.Jim.Yeah.So at about 8 .45 this morning, the release officially went out, news breaking probably about an hour before that.So an emergency board meeting last night held to officially ratify that Brad Scott would not see out the remainder of his contract.So around 18 months ahead of time, he has been relieved of his duties at the Bombers.

So just one win across the last year.It's been a really difficult time for Essendon.There's no doubt about that.There is broader context to that we'll get to in a moment.But the release saying from from Andrew Welsh, who's the president, that as they convened to discuss the future of the head coaching position, they felt like they hadn't made the progress on field with Brad, particularly this season that they were expecting.They decided that he wasn't going to coach next year, the final year of his contract.

So the only decision to be made, and it would be unfair to have him go a little further on in his coaching career at Essendon.So ultimately, as they start that rebuild, Jim, they've invested very heavily in the draft.They've turned over the playing list.They have blinked early on this rebuild and have decided to go in a different direction with the coach.So Dean Solomon at the moment is taking training that's going on behind me.It was quite extraordinary to be honest to have the players come onto the field about 20 minutes after that release went out.

So very much at the moment it's business as usual for the players as they prepare for a game against West Coast this weekend.

in terms of results, this pressure, was it just too much to bear to be rolled by fellow battlers Richmond at the weekend?

Yeah, and ultimately that was the finals draw, but they were coming into a month where there were some winnable games for them.So West Coast this weekend, they've got Carlton to come as well, but that game against Richmond was seen as a match they should be winning.They were severely affected by injury, the captain broke his jaw, they had five players get injured during the game.So definitelycircumstances, which to be honest, they've been through a lot over the last year or so.The injury toll last year was quite extraordinary.

made it pretty difficult for them to compete on the field, hence why they equalled the club's worst ever losing run of 17 and ultimately now have had the worst start to a season in a decade.But it wasn't that long ago, only a month ago, that Andrew Welsh said these exact words in an interview with the Herald Sun, where of the absolute belief that Brad is our next premiership coach.So a lot has changed in the last month, at least if you'll believe what the Bombers have been saying publicly.So that's one of the questions that Andrew Welsh and the Essendon hierarchy will ultimately have to answer this afternoon when they speak to the media.at around 12 .45 Eastern.And the broader context to this is that Essendon haven't won a final since 2004 and they've been through a myriad of coaches since then trying to get this thing right.

But ultimately, Brad Scott has fallen foul of this rebuild and they have to start again the Bombers.

Who is now lining up, do you think, to pick up the pieces and take this job full -time?

Dean Solomon has done a huge amount of work in his coaching career, was up at the Gold Coast, he's a Premiership player at Essendon, so it's certainly bled, he has bled black and red throughout his playing career and now gets an opportunity to lead the club from a coaching perspective.So, as we have discussed, after Michael Voss left Carleton, there are so many potential coaching candidates who have great credentials within the game.Longmire, Simpson, Buckley, Hinckley, Cameron and Goodwin are all theoretically available, who have coached for a long time at senior level.And then there's a really impressive crop of young assistants, which Essendon may consider as well.And there's one other name that just keeps coming up andhas done over many years at Essendon, and that is James Heard, a legend of this football club, coached during a really difficult time in the club's history during the Supplement Saga.

Is there a possibility that they might go down that road again?There's certainly people behind the scenes at Essendon who believe that he could galvanise this club, galvanise this playing group.It would be a massive story, Jim, and I'm sure this will bubble away over the next couple of days.And Andrew Welsh will be asked the question today.Could James Hurd make a triumphant return to Essendon?

Well, it's going to be worth tuning in just to hear that answer alone, Drew, I would suspect.All right, mate, really appreciate it.Drew Jones there live at The Hangar on another dramatic day in the world of AFL.But as Drew outlined, we will be taking you back there at 12 .45 today to hear the very latest from the Bombers on just what is next now that they have moved on from head coach Brad Scott to Dave.