'It's a pretty sexy look' 🔥 Hird set to assemble 'Dream Team' for Dons coaching bid 👀 I AFL 360

how long the James Hurd debate will last at Essendon.It's the only source of conversation when it comes to the Bombers, and it's stretched today to Archie Roberts at the MND launch.

I spent a lot of time with Matty Lloyd, and he was Hurdy was someone that Lloydy always spoke about, and spoke about the impact he had on his career, but then also the player he was.So yeah, if James gets the opportunity, I'm looking forward to it, and yeah, I've only heard great things about him.Yeah, well, someone that we trust and inspires us, I think.That's someone I want to play for and get rallies around the players who have had a tough few years.So, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out.I committed to this club because I love the people a part of it.

I love my teammates.And that hasn't changed since these things have happened.And I'm looking forward to the next few years with this group and then beyond that as well.

If you're running the right process, I think that's the only fear that James has got to go through it too.He's got to put, if he's putting his hand up, which he says on the, in the media, he wants to coach.Well, okay, James, you want to coach?You're just like the other line up.and put your best foot forward.I'd love to have him back, but I also want it done the right way.

The irony of name -dropping Matthew Lloyd today was pretty rich, wasn't it, from Archie Roberts?You'd be thrilled with that, Lordo, as he's sitting at home, just about to have a nice steak for dinner, and he sees that on the news.This story is a crazy vortex.Well, you've been doing this show much longer than I have, but as you sit down to try and work out what we're going to talk about tonight, you can't go again.But you can't not, because it's all...It's dominating the news cycle everywhere at the moment.

I guess the question for you and for all of us is how long will this run for?Because if you think that we, the media, are going to...to get sick of this before everyone else, you'd be mistaken.Because it just gets bigger and bigger.And the buying of interested parties.

So we've had from Michael Long to Hobbs, Ben Hobbs today in the back page of the paper with their endorsements of James Heard, what he's done and what he could do and then Archie Roberts gets caught up in it today.Scott Gullin will do his story on the midweek tackle following us but he's written about the recruiting of the Heard dream team.which sort of crosses over with Essendon.There are names on that list that Essendon would like to have in their process.

They don't get the Carlton job as well.They're all those names that are going to be recycled.So even that's just a weird phase to it.Damien Barrett's written in for AFL .com as well, who's been a strident critic of that whole period of time.And James Heard in particular, he just said, get it over and done with.

Do it.And there's that sentiment out there.There's another one that's getting stronger that I hear, that it's not It's certainly not a fait accompli for James and he'll have to go through the process.So there's an insatiable appetite for it all everywhere and it's not going to abate any time soon.So what is the time frame?I think for Andrew Welsh it's the biggest thing right now is to work out how long we can't let this go.

It's naive to suggest that they can now just sit on their hands that they've made the hard decision on Brad and go, Don't be rushed, I don't think they need to feel rushed, but they can't be thinking they're going to sit here for two or three months and let this thing run out of control.

You have to measure what the level of damage control is, whether you hemorrhage along the way.I'm sure they would like the luxury of months, but they don't have that.This is going to be the default conversation.It's the most fascinating conversation in footy with anybody that you come across out in the general public, within the industry.Everyone's got a view, everyone's got a question.as to how it unfolds.

And it does prompt, it stirs emotions and sensitivities, like few other stories.We've never really known a scenario quite like it, the building of a team behind the scenes to rise up and go for the job.So I just, people misconstrue what you think along the ways.My position is unaltered.Essendon should do whatever Essendon thinks is the right thing to do.for them and they shouldn't listen to what's happening on the outside and they shouldn't be lectured, which is part of what you said last night, so I don't want to steal your thoughts there.

But if they believe James Third is the unifying force that the club needs to rise up, they should absolutely do it.This is Essendon's business, more acutely than I've ever seen before, and it should be made by Essendon people, for Essendon people, by Essendon people.

And why they can't be rushed is they're dealing with a lot of wild ifs here.What if they do?What if they don't?Where's the fallout here?Where's the fallout there?You've got a supporter base that's been mobilised.

emotionally and passionately.You've got hard -headed money men on the other side of the coin that can be moved one way or the other, and then you've got those that have lived through that whole period of time that don't want to revisit it, and James is a really strong symbol of that.That's why there's so many different factors at play here.And then you go and talk to the different people.And Grant Thomas is not everyone's cup of tea, but I like talking to him this morning about it all, and he's just a great pragmatist.He went into the coaching game completely the wrong way, a complete different way to everyone else.

One of the things that resonates with me is he said, right now how important is coaching acumen, like getting the X's and O's right as opposed to the great uniter that can bring this football club up off its lowest point that I've ever, ironically say, for the whole saga we went through.So I can resonate with that a fair bit as well.And what are they goingbe like in the next two or three years anyway?Is this a time for someone such as he to come back?So now I'm interested in the time frame of it all.

So win, lose or draw, they might roll Carlton, they probably won't this weekend.That's not going to be the talking point.The talking point will be the coach.And if they lose badly, it'll be the coach.And next week it'll be on our rundown, but maybe not at the front.But it's not going away, Gerard.

at the MCG on Sunday night.So you're naïve to think it's not going to be visually represented, it's just what will it look like and how powerful will it be?

And I said this last week, if you think that the mobilised force behind that, and people get so twisted with this, it hasn't even started yet, the supporter base The Michael Long came out strongly, the Terry Danaher says, yeah, yeah, I'd love to have him, gotta go through the process, but I'd love to have him.That's just gonna continue.And then Archie Roberts is a current, I don't, don't worry about Archie, he's still a young man, he's just, he's a young man.He's added a little bit of fuel to that.Someone will jump ahold of that and say, see, look, the players, even the players want to hear it.

That's what happens to you.We sit here a week on from the sacking of Brad Scott and the figure that is James Hurd still hangs large over Essendon, doesn't it, Scott?You've broken the story just a short time ago on codesports .com .au that James is assembling his team, the dream team that he would take to Essendon with him should he lose.A, interview and B, get the job.

Now give us some of these names because there's some big ones.

There are.He's been a busy boy, James.I mean, team heard, he's got on the phone, spoken to a lot of his close associates and I think it's a genius move because as we know, the narrative has been, we love James, there's a lot to love about James but everyone keeps coming back to, oh he hasn't coached for 10 years, he's not up to date with the modern game.So what do you do?Go get people who are modern day experts aroundthem.

So, the names in his ideal dream team.Mark McVeigh, good friend, he's a Sydney assistant coach.Dean Solomon, obviously, he's a good friend, he's the instrument coach at the moment.Now development, big problem in Essendon as we know.Brendan McCartney, one of the best in the business ever, raised all the Geelong superstars.He's working with Herdy at Port Melbourne.

Now the big one is Dyson Heppel.And Bomba fans will love this.Former skipper.He's at Collingwood at the moment in a development role.Get him back to the team.And then Jimmy Bartel.

Brownlow Medalist, he wants to get it back into footy and I think him as part of the football department ticks a lot of boxes.Now the other name that has been floated was Michael Voss.Now James Heard has not spoken to Michael Voss, can I be very clear.But James Heard has spoken to people around Voss, just a casual conversation, they made it very clear that he's going to need a holiday.He's going to have a year off.But that doesn't rule out James, you know, Yeah, they shared the Brownlow medals.

He would be interested in 12 months.But what Hurdy's done is he realises that if I'm going head -to -head against a John Longmire, Ken Hinckley or the best current assistant coach, I need a team around me to tick all the boxes that some people would say are negatives could.Do you think that that team will get it done?I think that's a very good starting point.If I'm interviewing, James certainly does what he does.I'm a good motivator.

I've shown I can coach.but these are the people who I will have around me.It's a pretty sexy look, isn't it?

It's a really good idea, I think, if nothing else.I mean, he needed to be able to get the, as you said, presenter team, try and answer some of those questions and address some of the shortcomings that come at him.I must admit, I mean, everyone's got an opinion on this.I'm probably more in the camp of not the right fit, not the right time.The reason I was an excellent supporter was because of James Heard.I was a big James Heard fan when I was a kid.

But that gap in his resume, is going to count against him, I think, even with those people around him.I think, ultimately, what you're going to look for, if you're into a coaching panel, the first thing, surely, you'd sit down and you'd go, which IP are we looking to try and tap into?And if it's Geelong or whoever it turns out to be, does that panel necessarily address where the height of the competition has been and the standard?Have those guys been able to have enough experience in those systems?

But I'd argue that there are plenty of coaches in the AFL who the assistants do the game planning, the stats, the analysis, all that.Yes, they have an eye for what's going on, but he went to GWS under McVeigh for six months.Port Melbourne, VFL, he's had his toe in the water, as a few, the great Dermot Brereton and a couple of others have said.You know football, you know football.Yes, there's modernisms about it all.But I think this club is at rock bottom and it needs someone to bring them together.

Well, that's some of the imagery.That, of course, was from Essendon's celebration last year.Iconic, really stepping out of the smoke and the reception that he got from the crowd.That signage that we saw was from Optus Stadium on Sunday night just gone.So obviously a very small contingent of Essendon fans at the ground.This Sunday night looms as something very, very different.

This is an Essendon home game at the MCG.against, you know, the old rivals in Carlton.This could change.again and really gained momentum again, you would think after Sunday.There might be hundreds of those signs in the crowd.I mean, at the moment, we're gauging a lot of this by the people that we speak to.

We've been on the phones a lot the last week or so on this issue, obviously tapping into social media, where there's a lot of sort of vocal Essendon fans talking about this.But I think the proof could be in the pudding on Sunday night and see, you know, whether we see that stepping out at the MCG.But it is an interesting one, as you say, Scotty, does Essendon at the moment need, heard the strategist?or heard the unifier because they're two very different things and if he's got a team like McVay, Bartell, potentially a Michael Vos as you say if they've tested the waters there, they could do the lion's share of that and he could take care of the fractured club element.

Well imagine if an untried assistant, highly rate, like Stephen King isn't going to happen, what he's done at Melbourne, that's not going to happen everywhere.Say an Adam Uzo for a bit, if he gets plonked into Essendon, they've had Brad Scott try and change, an outsider try and do it, John Walsfold tried to do it, they've tried to do this.There's this, your club has special things going on there and he's a champion and yes, do you just go alright, let's do it once?And if it doesn't work, then everyone has to shut up.

This is massive for Andrew Welsh.We've heard the word strategy a million times.I'd struggle to think that the strategy would include going back to a club legend that hasn't really sat in a coach's box par in a 10 -week stretch at AFL level for GWS in 10 years is part of the strategy.So -called no shortcuts, go to the draft, get the best possible candidate out there.And unfortunately for James, it's a really good marketplace.If you look around the other candidates that are there at the moment, you've got John Longmire with a 63 % win record.

You've got all these decorated assistants and premiership coaches that are there.So I still feel like it's going to be a tough sell for James.Credit to him for putting that team together, but I don't think it's the favoured way even at this stage.

It'll be an interesting one.I'm more in the camp of you kind of need to give it a go at this point and rip the band -aid off and do it either way.I do wonder, there's reports out of Essendon that it's more no than yes at this point, but I wonder whether there's some at the Bombers that have read your story tonight, Scotty, and seen this team that they could potentially get together and whether that might turn their heads.Now one name that you didn't mention there,of course, is Matthew Lloyd, who was strenuous in his denial to any links of James Heard.But I can tell you that they are set to unite amid this push for the coaching position.

It's at a pub in Melbourne's South East.So Matthew Lloyd and James Heard are set to take to the stage in a no holds barred, uncut, raw, we're hearing all of these sorts of words in the advertising, sportsman's night effectively on July 1 at the Seaford Hotel.I'll tell you what, if they weren't selling tickets before, the last week may do it for them.It's a really interesting one to see them there.It's effectively an open mic night.So a lot of the time when we see, you know, the likes of Heard and Lloyd in their media positions, they're limited for time.

This is something that they are saying will be open to all and sundry to ask any question you like.

Phone's off.

Nothing is off the table.This is the other interesting one.In 2026, when everyone has got a phone and a social media account, and effectively a direct line to journalists, a closed room, which I think might be a a little bit of a wish.

If the mic comes around to you, Scotty, you've got one question to James Heard.What are you asking?What would you do with Zach Merritt?Yep.Loz?

I'm desperate to know how the last two weeks has played out and probably even sooner.Has anyone from Essendon or with links to Essendon, because we know it's not often the person in question, like Andrew Welsh, either before or after the Brad Scott sacking, have they made any sort of contact?What about you?

Maybe why he hasn't done the Nathan Buckley type thing.Go back to another club, get some more IP, be an assistant somewhere and then all of a sudden the naysayers out there that say, hey you haven't been in an AFL system.Well you can't say that if all of a sudden he's been doing that for some time in the last 10 years.

It's going to be interesting isn't it?That one is still a few weeks away so this story has no doubt got plenty of legs in it yet.