The Bombers start the next chapter under Dean Solomon with many questions to answer

May 31, 2026 — 10:26pm

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The question all week has been who wants to coach Essendon?

No-one it seems but James Hird, the premiership skipper and club legend who last coached the club in 2015 after one of the most ignominious coaching tenures in the game’s history.

The 53-year-old spent Sunday afternoon under grey clouds at Port Melbourne coaching the Borough’s forwards as they kicked the final three goals of the match to run down the Tassie Devils and win by four points.

Footy people were watching on from different AFL clubs, most convinced the Essendon job was going to be Hird’s when next year rolled around.

Other potential candidates are ducking for cover.

Essendon desperate for ‘rhythm’ after whirlwind week; Solomon fends off questions on Hird

Adam Simpson, Ken Hinkley and a flock of assistant coaches who seem happy turning lifelong ambitions to be a senior coach into lifelong ambitions to be a senior coach anywhere but Essendon while Hird is in the frame.

Hird’s good friend and premiership teammate Dean Solomon, who has taken the gig on as interim after Brad Scott was sacked on Tuesday with 18 months remaining on his contract, showed little enthusiasm for becoming coach full-time either.

He said he was too busy getting his head around coaching to worry about being a candidate.

That’s fair given he is one of........

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