AND SO three clubs are now on the coaching hunt.
Essendon has joined Carlton and Tasmania in searching for a senior coach and all will make their appointments in coming months.
The Bombers' decision to sack Brad Scott on Tuesday after the club's disastrous start to the season sees them enter the coaching market.
They will present themselves as an appealing job, but after jettisoning yet another leader of their program they will have their sixth senior coach in 14 years by the start of 2027. Stability is far from Essendon's strong suit.
The pressure on Scott has been rising dramatically and the Bombers' defeat to Richmond on Friday night was the final nail. The Bombers' board met after the loss and decided that Scott was not their man, and to bring the decision forward to make change.
Nobody at the club had been immune to the growing noise about Scott's future but players were not aware of the decision on Tuesday morning until it broke.
The recent 33-year-low Essendon crowd at the MCG against Fremantle gave the Bombers board a foreboding sense of what was to come later in the year if change wasn't made, but their view is the team had not progressed in line with its key performance indicators.
The key performance indicators of Essendon's board might also be worth marking at some stage, too.
Scott has known that as Essendon embarked on its draft-led rebuild that he may not see it through. Few rebuild coaches do. But when Essendon re-signed him for an extra year through to the end of 2027, just 34 games ago at the start of 2025, it was made with the view of keeping things stable when inevitable rockiness occurred.
Only last week Scott publicly reminded president Andrew Welsh and CEO Tim Roberts of that decision when he said that both leaders of the club were on the board when they committed to this long-term strategy. Roberts, also, publicly backed Scott as the man to lead them through and was unequivocal.
Eight days later the Bombers will pay out Scott at least $1 million, given he signed a water-tight deal in another red and black payout.
Since the tumultuous off-season last year when former captain Zach Merrett met with Hawthorn, Essendon has changed its president, chief executive and senior coach. It is reviewing other positions via its last CEO – and now consultant – Craig Vozzo and more change will be on the way. Essendon does things in curious ways and Vozzo's role from afar, after three years within, is the latest example.
The groundswell of hope for James Hird to return as Essendon coach will rise among key Bombers figures and a supporter base that is hungry for his return. Hird's football savviness remains brilliant and his relationships with players – as well as Welsh – will see him be thrust into contention, if he wants it. Already that momentum has begun.
The Bombers have been chasing Ken Hinkley for a senior football department role for more than a year. Does that chase pivot to be a senior coach?
Would Essendon consider a partnership between a younger and a more experienced coach, knowing that in the next few years of the club's plan, the Bombers will still be one of the youngest teams in the competition?
Hinkley has interest from Tasmania, as does former Sydney coach John Longmire. If Essendon wants either of them, it may have to move fast given the Devils' deadline is also growing closer. It is hard to think Devils CEO Brendon Gale didn't look at Tuesday's news, which came two weeks after Michael Voss' exit at Carlton, and get a little twitchy if he has a target in mind.
The likes of James Kelly, Corey Enright, James Rahilly, Jaymie Graham and Brendon Lade are among the assistant coaches who will be linked but the last time Essendon appointed a first-time coach – Ben Rutten – he was spat out a year after making the finals and two years after coming through a coaching succession plan.
Despite some young talent being added to the club in recent years, Essendon's reputation for not sticking to a plan precedes it, and it is not the type of environment where young coaches would believe they can thrive.