Former Essendon Football Club coach James Hird is reportedly on the verge of making a sensational return to the AFL via, of all places, the Fremantle Dockers.
Hird hasn’t held any involvement with football since leaving the head coaching position at the Bombers in 2015, one of the final cards to fall in the long-running ASADA saga that mired the club in darkness for five years straight, but reports today suggest he could be on his way back to a football job out west.
SEN host Sam McClure reported earlier today that Fremantle coach Ross Lyon had reached out to Hird about a potential football job with the club. Fremantle club officials subsequently reached out to the AFL for approval on the move, and were given the all clear.
Hird was “officially” welcomed back into the AFL community last September, after he accepted the league’s offer to present the Norm Smith Medal following the conclusion of last year’s Grand Final.
McClure cited a statement attributed to the AFL which asserted Hird had no impediment to returning to the AFL, having served an imposed 12-month suspension over his role in the ASADA scandal, which he returned from to coach Essendon for a further season.
It’s not known at this time what role the ex-Bomber would be filling at the Dockers, but it’s believed to be a position within the club’s football department.
At this stage neither Fremantle nor Hird has issued any official comment on the reports.
And just as an FYI, I’m really looking forward to reading all your drug jokes in the comments on this yarn. I’m sure they’ll all be profoundly original and, above all else, definitely funny.
