Essendon coach Mark McVeigh believes there is a “realistic chance” James Hird will be at the Bombers in some capacity.
On an AFL media podcast released on Wednesday, he shed light on the communication he has had with Hird throughout the process.
“It's a realistic chance. Ultimately it will come down to James,” McVeigh said.
“He's really enjoying his role at Port Melbourne and he has said he's got some interest from other clubs which is fantastic and he may choose to do that but him and I in the next day or so will sit down and chat about what that looks like.”
McVeigh added that the spectre of Hird caused him to at times second guess himself through the process.
“We speak a lot about a lot of different things,” McVeigh said.
“He's in the media around analysing teams and games and he often would get my thoughts on that. ‘When you played them, what did you think, how did you beat them, what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses' so we've always been like that, it wasn't just through the process.
“He was incredibly supportive of me all the way through. At times, you can second guess yourself with the noise around ‘Hirdy' and wonder if you're doing the right thing by the club, by ‘Hirdy' and he always reassured me which was good.
“I've had moments of thought around that at times just out of respect but I was quickly brought back by a lot of people saying you're ready, you know what you're doing, don't let that take you away from what you're trying to do so he was really good there.”
Across a wide-ranging 30-minute discussion, McVeigh admitted that he would need to do work to realign members of the fanbase who were desperate to see Hird at the helm.
Hird is not the only name who has been linked, with Nick Malceski another. McVeigh said he had not had a conversation with Malceski but there were about 10 names that would be considered.
“I think we need to look at three (new coaches) at the moment…we need to bring two or three in to shape the change and we'll target those coaches,” McVeigh said.
“There's a number of good coaches out there, not all of them willing to move, but we'll target some.”
Watching from afar, McVeigh has been pleased with the club's drafting decisions in recent years and gave an insight into the style of footy he wants to implement.
"We've got to make sure that when our players come into a new system, they're going to have to learn that and be a real master of that role.
"There will be roles involved, like all clubs, but we want to be a bit braver and more exciting with the ball. We want to free them up a little bit with that and put our weapons in positions to do that and we'll work through what that looks like and then there's an element of team defence which has been a backbone of Essendon for a long time.
"I think they need to understand their role when they don't have the ball. It's not all about offence.
"Offence can support your defence. They'll get a lesson in what they need to do and we've got to train it and embed it really quickly.”
