Brownlow Medallist Adam Cooney is against the idea of James Hird returning to Essendon.
Hird’s name has been raised as a potential candidate to fill the club’s current senior coaching vacancy following Ben Rutten’s departure.
The Bombers legend has already had one stint as coach which ended in tumultuous circumstances in August 2015 following the infamous supplements saga.
Cooney, who played under Hird at Essendon, says his former club needs a clean slate to move forward.
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“It needs to be a clean out of people that have been there through all of this,” he told SEN’s The Run Home.
“I don’t know who’s left from 2012, I would say not too many, there’s a few left from 2015 and 2016 when I was there.
“There’s talk about bringing James Hird back to the football club, we have to go forward. They can’t be bringing back the past when it hasn’t worked.
“James Hird isn’t the answer, he’s not going to come in and fix the Essendon footy club,
“The damage has been done. What has happened can’t be undone.
“Now it’s not a knock on James Hird, but I think the aura around ‘Hirdy’ has also dissipated because of what’s happened.”
With the Bombers on the hunt for a new senior coach, Cooney raised current assistant Daniel Giansiracusa as a possible option.
Giansiracusa arrived at Tullamarine in October 2020 after an assistant coaching stint at the Western Bulldogs.
The 40-year-old took out the 2020 AFL Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year prior to joining Essendon.
“He’s a good friend of mine and he’s been involved in a number of coaching interviews and got down to the last few in two or three jobs now,” Cooney said.
“I think ‘Gia’ would be a great coach for this team.
“He’s not an Essendon person as such so he’s not from the fabric of Essendon who they traditionally like to stick to and go back to.
“He’s seen this group and I think he’s hard enough to have honest conversations with his players, but he’s a good enough person to be able to develop those relationships so he can deliver what needs to be said quite bluntly.
“He’s got the jump on a number of coaches already because he knows some of these players pretty intimately and he knows the group well enough to be able to turn it around.
“I think he would do things a lot differently to how the club is being coached and run at the moment. I think he would run the program a completely different way and do it really well.
“I think it would be a really good fit.”
SEN host Andy Maher agrees: “There is no reason why he shouldn’t be a frontline consideration, no reason.
“In fact, if you’re Essendon, any of those assistant coaches that you rate really highly, you are duty bound to invite them to be part of the process.
“As Coons said, they should be ahead of candidates that you do not know from outside. They should have a natural advantage.
“He should be considered every possibility.”
New Essendon president David Barham says the club will target an experienced coach to replace Rutten for 2023.