Despite my passion for the club and a yearly attendance of between thirteen and eighteen games a year, I too had lost faith, and didn’t like the direction Essendon was heading. Even with a finals birth in 2009 I was apprehensive of our 2010 fortunes, as the retirement of veteran’s Lloyd and Lucus alongside the departure of mature and experienced bodies in Lovett and McPhee left a large void in the best 22. It was always going to be a hard task to improve or produce a similar result. I predicted in my heart of hearts a slide in form despite the occasional glimpse of decent football; I didn’t however expect the circus that surrounded the club in the last half of the season.
It is almost comical to recall that at the half way mark of the 2010 season the Don’s where only sitting in a slightly unfavourable five wins and six losses. Prior to a very narrow loss to Sydney at the SCG, they’d amassed three wins in a row, two of them against a pair of the seasons fancied premiership contenders. The team’s fixture wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t too bad, some experts even gave them a chance of making the eight. A mere month and a half later and the Bomber headlines where anything but rosy. Six consecutive losses, including a six goal towelling - at home - from interstate wooden spooners, West Coast stamped the seal on the Essendon 2010 season - disgraceful.
I’m a pretty forgiving person, and while I had some strong reservations in late 2007 when the club appointed Knights to the lead coaching position, I’m pretty good at going with the flow. I did broadcast an ‘approval’ percentage of Knights, starting at a low fifties base and over a season and a half eventually settling on a low nineties value. The delisting of Kepler Bradley was a good start, but I do digress.
The beautiful thing about hindsight is you can never be wrong. Knights turned out to be a poor coach, among his greater faults was turning a number of senior players against him. I credit the early retirement of Essendon’s own goal kicking legend, Matthew Lloyd to differences between Knights coaching ideas and Lloyds clear strengths. Lloyd has been a revelation in the media this year, opposition supporters that couldn’t stand his on field demeanour and idiosyncrasies have – begrudgingly – told me they honour his opinion. His knowledge, presence and footballing smarts where greatly missed in 2010, his track record should have secured him the automatic key forward role in the 22, playing second fiddle to slowly developing forwards that should be learning in the reserves is madness and ultimately why the number 18 hung up the boots.
In a personal first, in round 21 I did the unthinkable and knew then and there that Knights would be very lucky to be coaching come 2011. At half time in the Essendon versus Brisbane game I picked up my bag and trotted down the many steps of the stadium, proceeding to leave the match all together. This was a huge action for me; I typically can’t understand why supporters leave games with minutes to go in the last quarter. Yet I was leaving when the match was as close to the beginning as it was to the end. This wasn’t a completely isolated incident as over the preceding month I’d lost interest in my four or five weekly football related panel shows. Opting to delete the recordings I’d scheduled over enduring the predictable bashing of the clubs current state.
I didn’t even bother attending the last match of the season against the Dogs, and I wasn’t alone. It was the lowest attended match at the Dome of any Essendon match played there in the last decade. Without knowing it for sure, but having an inclination I’d voted to sack the coach. The board acted swiftly and within 12 hours of the end of Essendon’s 2010 season it had also become coach less. A feeling I’d never experienced in my first near thirty years of supporting the club had now occurred twice in almost as many years.
Regardless of my elation at the eventual signing of Hird as the head coach of the Dons, it is not without huge risks. The club has essentially appointed a multi million dollar coaching panel that will be lead by a 2010 under 9’s coach. That coach just happens to be a dual premiership player, Brownlow medallist and five times club best and fairest. Hird does have a certain right to the role, but many would like to see him fail – a word he doesn’t seem to understand. While Hird denies that he is a marketing puppet designed to right the clubs commercial opportunities it would be naïve to disregard that component of his appointment.
This alone, is the sheer brilliance of the signing. Hird has taken the role to pour his considerable football knowledge down the throats of an exited and willing young list, to rebuild the club to the envy of the league. The board has appointed him to unite the clubs supporters, board members and of course corporate sponsors towards a common goal. While Hird’s coaching abilities are raw and untried his strength in the corporate world and in front of a media conference are second to none. He is a born leader of men; on the field he led by example, his sheer will to contest carried others to greater things. Essendon are attempting to assemble a super football department to train him to inspire from the sidelines in much the same way he did on the field. Hird ticked too many of the right boxes to really ever consider anyone else for the role if he was available. Regardless of if Hird is a great or horrendous coach the decision to appoint him was always the right call …
