Why the Essendon coaching job is better than advertised

It is easy to sketch an unflattering portrait of Essendon’s coaching position and to question why the strongest candidates, seasoned or capable assistants, ought to steer clear of King’s Landing at Tullamarine.

One does not have to go far to find observers in the AFL ecosystem who think coaching Essendon is less secure than occupying No.10 Downing Street.

“Why would you go there?” has been a frequent refrain. Many view Carlton and Tasmania as more attractive propositions for aspiring coaches.

The negative storyline is as follows: the Bombers are on the bottom. Zach Merrett and Jordan Ridley want out. Senior players form the weakest frontbench in the competition. Factions, money men, coteries and Kevin Sheedy and/or James Hird will cast a shadow from the outset if you get the gig (and Hird or caretaker Dean Solomon do not).

You’ll get a couple of years mopping up a mess before becoming the latest to disappear down the Tullamarine trap door, ending your senior coaching career, in the manner of Ben Rutten.

This perception is understandable. The Bombers have been riven with politics for nearly two decades. The past has exercised some kind of spell over the club and an unhealthy portion of its justifiably despairing fan base.

Outsiders – which Sheedy was the consummate example of when hired in 1980 – are viewed as interlopers by many of the tribe, since none have succeeded since Sheedy.

This is in marked contrast to Geelong, who have not hired “a Geelong person” as coach since 1986. That coach, the late John Devine, is the last to be sacked by the Cats.

None of these peculiarities and pathologies would hinder the next Essendon coach if he gets the Bombers to rise up the ladder.

Once the fans have new heroes – if and when Sullivan Robey, Jacob Farrow, Nate Caddy, whoever they pick first in the draft, and potentially others become stars – the past will be banished to where it belongs, the past.

Essendon, abject as they’ve been since the middle of 2025, are in better shape, on the rebuild front, than outward appearances and recent results suggest.

Consider what the next coach will inherit:

1. They will get either pick No.1 or 2 in the national draft. This ought to deliver a gun.
2. Due to the bidding system for academy and father-son players, they won’t land either Dougie Cochrane (Port Adelaide) or Cody Walker (Carlton). But the Bombers, like the whole bottom five, will be compensated with an extra end-of-first-round choice – around pick No.20.
3. Already enormous, the salary cap space should be between $3 million and $4 million – closer to the latter if Merrett departs, as he should.
4. Trading Merrett would bring at least one first-round pick. Essendon, thus, will likely enter the national draft will a haul approaching Richmond’s 2024 bounty, with perhaps four or five picks inside the top 22. But unlike the Tigers, the Bombers’ draft hand – the last before the drafts are gutted by Tasmania – will not require the trading out of key players in their mid-careers, which has prolonged Richmond’s pain. Merrett and Ridley turn 31 and 28 respectively in October.
5. Most crucially, much of the unpleasant spade work on the list has already been completed on Brad Scott’s watch. Jake Stringer was offloaded, harming the Dons’ winning chances in 2025 and 2026, along with Dylan Shiel, Jayden Laverde and Todd Goldstein (a stop-gap only). Sam Draper left as a free agent last year.
6. The club’s obvious leadership candidates, the wholehearted Sam Durham and committed Nic Martin (who will return from his knee injury for 2027), are in their mid-20s and should be ready to drive the group forward. Surely, there won’t be another injury saga like the one that bedevilled them last year.

It is better to take over a team on the bottom, with massive draft capital and salary cap space, than one stuck where Essendon have been for eons, between eighth and 15th. A few higher picks have been pushed back by free agency or NGA/father-son bids.

The Dons’ heavily scrutinised draft and trading missteps have been mainly from mid-range picks (skipper Andy McGrath, pick No.1, 2016, is an exception) and they were cursed with three top-10 picks in the COVID-afflicted draft of 2020.

Their first-rounders since 2023 have been sound choices.

Few quality players will be banging down the door to get to Essendon at season’s end. Toby Greene is Powerball odds to leave the Giants for Essendon, irrespective of Hird’s presence or that of anyone else.

That said, the Bombers are more comparable to Richmond, Hawthorn and Carlton than to St Kilda and North Melbourne. Once powerful clubs gather steam, as Hawthorn did in 2024, free agents and decent out-of-contract players will jump on board.

The next two years won’t be plain sailing. But the new coach gets a restart, and won’t be expected to play finals in that time.

All that the Essendon hierarchy needs to do is convince the best aspiring coaches that this situation is genuinely vacant, that they will hire the best candidate as coach, like a normal club, and that an Essendon passport is not necessary to get past customs and immigration at Tullamarine.

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