- James Hird could coach VFL team Port Melbourne next season
- The big bomber was in charge during Essendon’s supplement saga
- Hird walked away in 2015 and has been a virtual recluse in recent years
Football legend James Hird is set to make a sensational return as coach at highly regarded VFL club Port Melbourne next season.
Hird, 51, previously worked as an assistant coach at Greater Western Sydney in 2022 with close friend Mark McVeigh and last coached at AFL senior level in 2015 with Essendon.
Nearly ten years ago, the great Bombers left Windy Hill in a somber mood due to the infamous drug supplement affair.
Under Hird’s leadership, Essendon was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in Australian sporting history, with 34 players found guilty on appeal of using performance-enhancing drugs during the 2012 AFL season.
Four years later, the AFL suspended the players involved in the scandal for 12 months, while 2012 Brownlow Medallist Jobe Watson was stripped of his coveted medal.
Hird later admitted that he was ‘naive’ as head coach and trusted ‘bad’ people, and had become withdrawn in recent years.
Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson were Essendon’s sports scientist and performance coach respectively during the supplements scandal.
‘I trusted the people I asked to do things, but they didn’t. [I was] “a bit naive,” Hird previously told the Howie Games podcast.
Football legend James Hird is set to return to coaching at VFL club Port Melbourne next season
Hird (pictured, centre, with his wife Tania – right – and three of their children) previously worked as an assistant coach at Greater Western Sydney in 2022 and last coached at AFL senior level in 2015 with Essendon
The great Bombers left Windy Hill almost a decade ago under a dark cloud over the infamous supplements saga (pictured in 2015 after he announced his resignation)
“The most upsetting thing is that there are 34 players who have done absolutely nothing wrong and their families and they have suffered tremendously as a result. And that goes for the Essendon supporters as well.”
Hird applied for the Bombers’ head coaching role after Ben Rutten left in 2022, but chairman David Barham ultimately opted for Brad Scott.
Many football fans and analysts thought Hird would never consider a head coaching role again after feeling ‘betrayed’ by Barham. But the chance to coach his son Tom at state level with Port Melbourne is said to be the reason he is eyeing a return.
Current head coach Adam Skrobalak informed the playing group this week that he will be moving to Queensland in the off-season.
The famed VFL club are also looking to take a different direction after winning just five games so far this year.
After retiring as a single-club player in 2007, Hird went on to coach the Bombers in 85 games, managing them from 2011-13 and then in 19 games in 2015.
The former Championship midfielder won the Brownlow Medal in 1996 and the Norm Smith Medal in 2000 and played for two Premier League teams.