By No32
So many talk about James Hird being the next coach of Essendon, our favorite son, No.3 all time selected “Essendon Champions” behind Dick Reynolds and John Coleman (who both happened to coach the club to great success during their time). James Hird will not coach Essendon Football club…WHY? you may ask yourself. The reason is because Essendon doesn’t have the culture of cut and run.

Matthew Knights has been Essendon Football Club coach for what will be 33 games after this weekend, which represents the halfway mark in his contract. His current achievements have been a new and exciting brand of football, once which can really blow teams away. Of course at the moment it’s been from being well behind on the scoreboard, wait until we get out starts right. It is attractive football, he is teaching the players to play surge football, running, chasing and tackling…being competitive. Under Knights tuteledge and also his astute selections of Assistant coaches we are developing the next generation of Essendon Football Club leaders… Tayte Pears, Darcy Daniher, David Zaharakis, Patrick Ryder…. players flurishing under his willingness to “Back Them In”…to play HIGH RISK football. He has a battle plan, he has clear milestones and methodically is hitting those milestones.

Let’s fast forward to end of 2009, lets say we finish 8th, we make the finals which is a goal and clear objective for Knights… and if so it would be great achievement considering the injury toll suffered so early on the season… if we miss the 8, say finish 10th… it will be a disappointment, as long as there is clear improvement then it’s a bonus…dont forget it’s only year 2 into a long term vision.

Jump into 2010, full pre season, full list, another year in the gym, another year gut running during the summer… McVeigh, Welsh with a full preseason under their belt, slot back into the guts, providing leadership and aggression..not to forget help for Jobe and Brent…. Prismall also with a full pre-season and adding more depth to further grow the headache for opposition sides… The Anvil to train with Jobe, drop 6kg’s of fat and put on 3kg of muscle….also have some more engine room to run. Fletcher playing loose in defense with Pears and Hurley manning the key posts…Dempsey coming on strong as the backline quarterback… Lovett, Davey and Jetta all with another superb pre-season under their belt…more experience and confidence and Hille back in to support Ryder or Vice Versa… Ryder resting forward with Lloyd and Neagle to scare the shite out of defenders….maybe even slide onto the wing for 5-10minutes… Are you salivating??? The potential to finish in the Top 8, excellent, Top 6 good…Top 4 os promising considering our depth of talent is deeper than most clubs between 4-8 on the current ladder…and developing faster.

So lets say Knights in 2010 steers the side to a finals finish, around 6th, after 8th in 2009 and 12th in 2008 after turning over the list and having a bad run of injuries… would the club extend him a 2yr contract or would the specture of James Hird looming spook the club into removing Knights? HIGHLY DOUBTFUL… if Knights was to provide results such as or resembling them, only a club either crazy or torn would remove Matthew Knights from his post. Knights would have to lose the complete playing list and board, we would have to finish in the bottom 4 this year and next… which I has about a 5% chance of happening… on current form and trends this team will continue to improve and so will Knights, thus as mentioned facilitating a contract extension, min of 2 years.

James Hird may have stuck his toe back into the media this year, if those who believe he will coach one day are to realise their dream he would need to stick his toe in the coaching water in 2010 as an Assistant possibly or take the path of straight into a Senior Role for 2011… If Hird was to take the non assistant route, if he were to not take a role in 2011 (if one was available) then his chances of landing a Senior Job become smaller, as he is further and further out of football (3-4 years)…. the Tim Watson experiment would loom largeess. There is one job which will not be available and that will be the Essendon FC position, as Knights would be expected to be re-contracted either mid season or at the end of the season…thus leaving the dream of many of the returning son in tatters…

IF James Hird has his sights set on coaching Essendon FC….REALITY CHECK….his window quite possibly would not arise until 2013 and would only be from failure of Matthew Knights to continue development of the Essendon FC and be contending for a Premiership… Essendon FC will give Knights time, they understand stability and strength…removing Knights for the romantic notion of Hird coaching does not exude that…it would be a rather large destabilising factor and for what?? A Romantic Notion??

So Romantic’s get used to the notion that James Hird will never coach this club, because based on probable time and current trend he would need to be in the system as either an Assistant or Head Coach of another club around 2013-2015 when he “Might” get a sniff…. and I doubt he would return if he were the senior coach of another club his integrity and honesty would preclude him from doing a Terry Wallace…and if he hadn’t coached at any level between now and then, he will have been superseeded…

Just hope he will land a position of the board once David Evan’s takes over from Big Ray…and don’t fear if I get the job ahead of Evo, I will also seek Hird to seek election to the board…thats about as romantic it will get…until his sons turn 17-18 and we claim them under F & S rules

XXXII