Hird has locked himself into a new career says Sheedy

KEVIN Sheedy has all but ruled out a coaching return for James Hird, saying the club legend is moving “full throttle” into the business world.

Hird threw his hat in the ring to take Ben Rutten’s vacated job last year, seven years after he stepped down as head coach following the club’s drug saga.

In a process run by Essendon president Dave Barham that drew criticism, Hird was eventually overlooked for Brad Scott.

Speaking to SEN’s Sportsday, Sheedy revealed Hird’s no longer in invested in a return to coaching.

“James Hird has locked himself into a business career now, which I think is fantastic for him,” Sheedy said.

“I had lunch with him not long ago. He’s going into the business world full throttle which is great, in finance, which is great. He’s a very capable person, James.”

Hird had held a part-time role at GWS prior to running for the Essendon job.

Sheedy was the only board member to vote for Hird and broke club ranks when publicising his views in an interview with the Herald Sun.

It painted a picture of a scrambled board at the time after initially claiming the Scott decision was unanimous.

Sheedy was criticized in the aftermath from several areas of the media, yet he singled out Age journalist Caroline Wilson as the sole contributor.

“I eat pressure, I never worry about it,” the four-time premiership coach said.

“It was only one person, it was Caroline Wilson, and that’s her job… I don’t have a problem working at Essendon on the board because I’ve done a lot of good things for the Bombers.

“I never get too carried away with it all.”

Another area of disenchantment within Essendon comes between head of footy Josh Mahoney and list manager Adrian Dodoro.

The two reportedly have a frosty relationship and forced a restructure of the football department that now sees Dodoro report to new CEO Craig Vozzo.

But Sheedy said it’s no longer an issue.

“We’ve got Craig Vozzo, he runs the club with David Barham and that’s sorted out,” Sheedy said.

“So you move on, simple as that.”

Essendon’s decisions late last year have certainly been justified with the club winning four of its opening seven games and demonstrating vast improvement on last year.

– BY SEB MOTTRAM/ SEN