RIGHT NOW, whether James Hird is the right man to coach Essendon is almost a moot point.

Granted, it is now the hot topic in football after the humiliating 110-point loss to St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

• Hird insists: I'm still the right man for the job

And indeed, to dwell on the Bombers is almost unfair given the magnificent performance by the Saints in what was easily the best win of Alan Richardson's 35 games in charge of the club. The Saints are Coming (copyright The Skids, 1979).

More pertinent for now is to examine the state of the playing list. Who stays? Who goes? Who needs some time in the side between now and the end of the season to determine whether they have a future at the club?

Who stays? Who goes? The Bombers leave Etihad Stadium after Sunday's thrashing. Picture: AFL Media

Will Kyle Langford and Jayden Laverde be 200-game players for the Bombers? What about Jason Ashby, Shaun Edwards and Orazio Fantasia? It is time to find out.

At 4-9 and in 14th place, the squad Hird thought good enough for September can kiss the finals goodbye. Paul Chapman, Adam Cooney and James Gwilt will not be part of the next Essendon finals side - the top-up policy served the Bombers no useful purpose whatsoever, so put a line through their names for the rest of the season.

Nor will Dustin Fletcher, but he alone should determine how often he plays for the rest of the season.

Jason Winderlich is another one. He swore black and blue at the end of last season that he was retired, that he could barely get out of bed for days after games. Yet he came back – not sure why – so a second, and this time permanent, retirement beckons.

Brent Stanton has been a warrior for the Bombers, probably better appreciated by rival supporters than his own. Does he continue?

James Hird's role is a moot point given the state of the Dons' playing list. Picture: AFL Media

Essendon supporters were venting on Sunday night and were naming names – Ariel Steinberg, Courtenay Dempsey, Nick O'Brien and Elliott Kavanagh were the names most frequently discussed. Jake Melksham was even brought up in dispatches.

The Bombers were thrashed at the contests on Sunday, embarrassingly so. The Saints had 140 more possessions yet still won the tackle count convincingly. Jobe Watson had a 'mare in his 200th game with nine touches. Brendon Goddard fared even worse, with just seven. Meanwhile, Dyson Heppell had 32 and with every passing week shapes as the next skipper of the Bombers.

Given how tough Watson now finds the job, that's a move the Bombers should seriously consider over the summer.

This is a side that features Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley, Joe Daniher and Jake Carlisle down its spine. Individually they are talented and collectively, they are good enough to win a premiership.

Without playing the blame game, it is obvious to all that Essendon is a club that has played under great duress the last three years. But none of that excuses the performance against St Kilda. This was a failure of list management.

The reality is, the playing list is no longer up to scratch, and Essendon must work out how to fix it and then, and only then, decide whether James Hird is the right man to coach it. 

• RIP Walshy: Fans flock to Adelaide Oval to pay tribute to fallen coach
• A weekend like no other: Nine things we learned from round 14

Tigers fire ...

Supporters of Richmond and North Melbourne sat down for the weekend's football with a mixture of fear and trepidation.

They are two of the most enigmatic clubs in the competition, where the weight of expectation can bring out their best and their worst, the weird and the wonderful. 

And so it proved on Saturday. The Tigers returned back to the MCG fresh off the stirring win over the Sydney Swans at the SCG but with lingering questions over their ability to handle a bit of prosperity. And there was the very real matter of three big wins on the road – Port Adelaide and Fremantle were the others – and some poor losses at home to the Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and West Coast. 

For considerable periods on Saturday, the Tigers appeared headed for another demoralising home defeat. Late in the third term of a low-scoring scrap, they trailed the depleted Giants by 15 points. 

But some old-fashioned fire and brimstone at the final change from coach Damien Hardwick sharpened the minds and the Tigers escaped with the nine-point win that cemented their position in the top eight. 

But there were elements of luck. Richmond's Anthony Miles really should have pinged for holding the ball when he turned 540 degrees with the ball while tackled, with the Tigers three points ahead but with the Giants 70 metres from goal. But somehow there was no whistle and the Tigers instead worked the ball to Shane Edwards who kicked the sealer. 

It was an important win for the Tigers and they displayed a level of maturity in the final term that was another sign of a side that is becoming seriously good. 

... Kangas flop

North supporters would have been hoping for the same on the Gold Coast, but as is their tendency, the Kangaroos did not miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. 

There was no grinding out the win against the Suns, who while better for the return of Gary Ablett and David Swallow, were still inexperienced and down on manpower.

No, instead it took North nearly a half to register a goal and it took erstwhile midfielder Ben Cunnington drifting forward to finally hit the scoreboard. That's an indictment on a forward line that has never appeared totally convincing all year. 

North also lacked real speed through the midfield – the absence of Daniel Wells has been glaring this season – and skill execution was generally poor. 

The loss leaves the Roos a game and a half out of the eight and while much is made of the club's generally favourable run home to the finals, Saturday's loss begs the obvious question of whether the side is good enough in any event to take advantage of the supposedly soft draw over the next few weeks.

Note to self: Don't get carried away with the Roos, no matter how they fare over the next six weeks.

• Forecast this season's final standings with the AFL Ladder Predictor 

As for the Suns, it was as though they emerged on Saturday evening from a year-long fog. Ablett was back in the side and they looked formidable once more, playing at the level that had them in finals calculation for most of last year, at least until Ablett tore up his shoulder.

It may turn out that this was the year the Suns had to have – the bump in the road before becoming a regular finals aspirant. It is doubtful Rodney Eade thought it would be this bad this year, but the Suns coach would have learned a thing or two about the resilience of his playing group.

With Ablett back, Charlie Dixon in formidable touch and the defence fortified once more, The Suns won't be an easy out for the rest of the season, and while they won't play finals, with matches to come against the Western Bulldogs, GWS, Adelaide, Richmond and the Sydney Swans, they can at least help shape the September line-up. 

Glass half-full for Pies

We're two weeks into a month-long referendum on Collingwood and it was interesting to observe the two schools of thought on the TV broadcasts on Friday night.

On Channel Seven, it was that the Pies could afford one honourable loss last week to Fremantle, but not to Hawthorn as well. The view over at Fox Footy was that the Pies had enjoyed a good fortnight, despite the pair of defeats that leaves them virtually two games out of the top four given fourth-placed Hawthorn's massive percentage.

I'm with the Fox guys. The Pies were most impressive against Hawthorn on Friday night, well coached and with the exception of their conversion, they executed Nathan Buckley's plan to near perfection, cutting Hawthorn's spread and taking the Hawk defenders out of their comfort zone by making them play one-on-one and be directly accountable for their opponents.

They put the Hawks to the sword in the third term and really should have led by three or four goals at the final change.

But their 2.9 return for the term left the reigning champs with a sniff for the contest and as expected, they came home strong. 

The one downside of the result against the Hawks that it didn't ultimately reward Scott Pendlebury for a game coach Nathan Buckley rated as perhaps his best ever for the club. The Collingwood skipper had 37 possessions (20 contested) six marks, 10 clearances, 10 tackles and six inside 50s.

Scott Pendlebury's Friday night against the Hawks. Source: AFL Live Official App

Sign up for a free two-week trial of AFL Live Pass and fire up the AFL Live App to watch every match live and gain access to Coach features, including club and player heat maps.

But looking at the game in totality, it was further evidence that that for all the doubts at the time, the Pies did the right thing in installing Buckley as coach when they did. Buckley has grown into the role, recast the playing list and some shrewd drafting and clever trading has set the Pies up for a serious premiership assault in the next two to three years. 

The Pies might have lost eight straight to the Hawks, all under Buckley, but that streak will end before too long. And if you're looking for the next team from Victoria to win a premiership, that is if the Hawks don't sneak one more this year before their inevitable slide, it might well be Collingwood.

QUESTION TIME

Ashley Browne: I'm with you on that one. I'm not sure how the Brownlow Medal count can be level playing field this year given that players from 16 clubs have 22 games from which to try and get votes, while Adelaide and Geelong have only 21. Perhaps the AFL surmised that Nat Fyfe is so far ahead it doesn't matter.

AB: It is getting to that stage. Certainly the AFL thinks so, hence the well-received trials that took place during the NAB Challenge of four field umpires. It is a major financial impost for the AFL to introduce a fourth umpire on a regular basis and there are concerns that there aren't capable umpires coming through the system good enough to take charge at AFL level. But the talent pathways to AFL umpiring now more closely resemble those for players and at some point in the next three to five years, there will be an additional field umpire at all games. It might take some of the extra cash the AFL will receive from the next media rights deal to pay for it.

AB: Probably a blessing. Despite the week off, the Cats were looking to take a weakened squad to Adelaide to face the Crows, with suggestions a few players either not in great form or less than 100 per cent fit, were in line to play. Instead they enjoyed the luxury of bringing Jimmy Bartel back through the VFL and got more time into potential debutant Jarrad Jansen. Bartel, by the way, had 28 touches, seven clearances, six tackles and five marks in about 80 per cent of game time. Another bonus for the Cats was not having to travel and avoiding a six-day turnaround to face North Melbourne on Saturday night. Geelong has travelled extensively in the middle part of the season and only play one more game outside Victoria for the rest of the year and that is in Canberra.

• Fantasy form watch: Round 14's Pig, Presti and Junior Swine
• Who starred for your club in this weekend's state leagues?