- James Hird has been trying to get back into training
- Tried to be reinstated as Bombers coach in 2022
Essendon icon James Hird returns to television screens as part of Channel Nine’s football coverage following his failed efforts to return to the AFL coaching ranks.
The reclusive star, whose illustrious career with the Essendon Bombers as a player and coach was marred by controversy, will join Sunday night TV show Footy Furnace alongside AFL reporter Tom Morris and AFL great Jimmy Bartel. Cats.
Hird replaces another football legend, Leigh Matthews, who stepped away from the show.
“I missed the game,” Hird told Nine. ‘The game is a great game, but I certainly haven’t missed the hype. It seems like the time is right.
‘The scrutiny is on every player and every coach all the time. “It’s the most important thing in the city and it’s good to be back and be a part of it.”
The AFL media landscape has undergone a major shake-up in recent weeks and Hird’s signing is part of Nine’s move to revitalize its football programming following the departure of some big names.
The great Bombers left Windy Hill almost a decade ago under a dark cloud due to the infamous drug supplement saga.
With Hird at the helm, Essendon was at the center of one of the biggest scandals in Australian sporting history, with 34 players found guilty on appeal of taking performance-enhancing drugs during the 2012 AFL season.
Football legend James Hird (pictured) joins Channel Nine’s football coverage
Hird worked as an assistant coach at Greater Western Sydney in 2022.
The Bombers greats left Windy Hill almost a decade ago under a dark cloud due to the infamous supplements saga.
Four years later, the AFL suspended players involved in the scandal for 12 months, while 2012 Brownlow Medalist Jobe Watson had to hand back his coveted medal.
Hird later admitted to being “naive” as a head coach and trusting “bad” people, and has been reclusive in recent years.
Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson served as Essendon’s sports scientist and high-performance coach respectively during the supplements saga.
‘I trusted the people I asked to do things and they didn’t do it. (I was) a little naïve,’ Hird previously told the Howie Games podcast.
“The most disturbing thing is that there are 34 players who have done absolutely nothing wrong and they and their families have suffered enormously for it, as have the Essendon fans.”
Hird applied for the head coaching job at the Bombers after Ben Rutten was moved in 2022, only to see chairman David Barham opt for Brad Scott.
He was also set to take up a coaching role at VFL club Port Melbourne but decided to become coaching director due to business commitments.
It is not known whether he will continue in the role now that he has landed the job with Nine.
After retiring in 2007 as a one-club player, Hird coached the Bombers in 85 games, managing them from 2011 to 2013 and then for 19 games in 2015.
The former champion midfielder won the 1996 Brownlow Medal plus the 2000 Norm Smith Medal and played for two senior teams.