Essendon assistant coaches Rob Harding and Paul Corrigan will coach out the remainder of the 2019 season before leaving Windy Hill to pursue other opportunities.
It is understood that Essendon players and staff were informed on Friday morning that opposition strategy coach Harding and forwards coach Corrigan would be moving on, with AFL clubs beginning to prepare for the August 1 deadline for the future of assistant coaches.
Former Bombers game performance coach Mark Neeld spoke about Harding last week on K Rock radio.
"Just on Rob, I know he's not a household name in the footy world (but) I worked with him for quite a lengthy period of time," Neeld said.
"Whatever the fancy title is at the moment, he's a strategy coach – he looks into the opposition.
"Prior to Essendon, he was at Adelaide when 'Sando' (Brenton Sanderson) was coach over there, and he was at the Cats and also at North Melbourne.
"So he's building a really good reputation on the back of some hard work, but he would be one of the smartest people in the AFL competition."
Rival clubs were understood to be circling Harding last season, having built a strong reputation across several AFL clubs.
Harding has spent 15 years in the AFL system as a an opposition analyst, with time spent at North Melbourne, Adelaide and Geelong, where he worked alongside Chris Scott for the 2011 premiership.
Harding arrived at Essendon prior to the 2017 season, where Corrigan has been with the club for seven years.
