James Hird

James Hird, born 4 February 1973 is a former professional Australian rules footballer and the current coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Nicknamed "The General", Hird played as a midfielder and half forward, but was often given free rein by former Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy to play wherever he thought necessary. Hird was the joint winner of the 1996 Brownlow Medal with Brisbane Bears' midfielder Michael Voss. A half forward, Hird is often considered one of the greatest footballers of the modern era. He is a member of the AFL Hall of Fame and was listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the top 50 players of all time.

Early 2000s

2000 was a much better and successful year for Hird. Injury free, he received numerous honours, including selection to the All Australian Team, and the Norm Smith Medal for a best on ground performance in the AFL Grand Final. The Essendon team also won the Ansett Cup pre-season competition, and the regular season premiership. The team only lost one game – against the Western Bulldogs – in the entire calendar year, making it the most successful year for any team in the history of the Australian Football League.

The following season's Grand Final was a disappointment for Hird. 2002 then saw Hird's worst injury, an horrific facial injury sustained in a match against Fremantle when he collided with teammate Mark McVeigh's knee, breaking or fracturing all but a couple of the bones in his skull; Hird was in hospital for a week and missed several weeks of the season. The force of the impact radiated throughout his face, particularly to his sinuses, complicating the damage. Hird was unable to fly home to Melbourne due to the air pressure fluctuations found in an aircraft during flight creating concern for his health while the injuries healed. Other players, including Stephen Milne (also after a match in Perth late during the 2008 season) and Ted Richards suffered similar injuries later on, meaning they had to return to their home states by ground.

In 2003, despite again missing eight games through various injuries, Hird tied in the Essendon Best and Fairest with Scott Lucas. He also narrowly missed out on a second Brownlow Medal, finishing three votes behind the three joint winners Mark Ricciuto, Nathan Buckley and Adam Goodes. Despite this, he was rewarded with a place in the 2003 All-Australian team.

During one of his regular panel appearances on The Footy Show, on Wednesday 7 April, Hird launched a surprising attack on the standard of umpiring he believed that Essendon had been dealt in the previous match versus St Kilda. After previously talking to the AFL about umpiring standards, Hird later wrote, "The umpires' interpretation of our interpretation seemed to be different too often, and we felt we weren't getting fair hearing." His anger spilled out onto the AFL Footy Show, saying:

    Scott McLaren hasn't been our favourite umpire ... That's something that the club and he have to come to terms with, because at the moment there's a feeling at Essendon that he's not doing the right thing by us ... hopefully the club and he can come to some arrangement where umpiring is a bit better ... I thought the umpiring was actually quite disgraceful on Saturday night ... I just didn't think the free kicks that were there were paid and some of them were paid weren't right, I suppose ... I'm not alleging incompetence. We all have bad days; he had a bad day.

A few AFL players spoke out in the media criticizing some of the media's negative comments towards Hird. It was, according to Hird, the first time he'd ever come under media scrutiny and he was unsure how to deal with it. He later took aim at the AFL Players Association. "I don't think I was given enough support from them. I hadn't hurt anybody or been found taking something I shouldn't take, but I felt as if I was in the middle of a police investigation." Later that Friday, Hird called a press conference to apologise to McLaren. In a statement, McLaren said:

    I was surprised and disappointed by the comments he made. This has deeply affected my family and friends ... but I have every confidence with the AFL rules and regulations and that will deal with the situation appropriately ... I have enormous respect for James Hird as a footballer, but I was surprised and disappointed by comments he made on the Footy Show last night regarding my performance as an AFL umpire. I look forward to going out this weekend and calling it how I see it, impartially and without fear or favour.

The matter by-passed the AFL Tribunal – because he made the comments on a national television program, they did not need to decide whether they had been made. Instead, the matter would be directly determined by a meeting of the AFL Commission, and any punishment Hird would receive would result directly from that meeting. The Footy Show airs on Thursday evenings, and the AFL Commission was not meeting until the following week; as such, Hird was given clearance, pending the hearing, to play in the following game against the West Coast Eagles (see Memorable Games). On the following Wednesday, 14 April, the AFL Commission met, deliberated, and ultimately handed down its penalty to Hird. He was fined $20,000, and forced to contribute to a 3-year umpiring development program; the Commission decided against suspension. Hird accepted his sanction and expressed remorse for his actions. In a further controversy, Scott McLaren was one of the umpires rostered for the Essendon vs Carlton game the following Friday night. The pair shook hands at the commencement of the game, bringing closure to the issue, but Carlton fans were particularly hostile to any free kicks given by McLaren to Essendon.

On the occasion of his 300th umpiring appearance in 2008, McLaren described Hird's outburst as a "defining moment" in his career.

Probably Hird's most memorable performance is universally considered to be the Round 3, 2004 game against West Coast – the game immediately following the controversy. It was a close, high scoring game, and was particularly intense during its final quarter.

Up until three-quarter time, Hird had 19 disposals and one goal; in the final quarter, he managed 15 disposals and two goals, the latter of which was most memorable. With the scores level at 131 and very little time remaining, the ball was bounced in Essendon's forward pocket, tapped to the boundary line side, roved, and neatly handpassed by Marc Bullen to a goalward-running Hird, who, approximately thirty metres from goal, snapped from an acute angle for the game-winning goal. In the emotion of the moment, he ran to the fence and hugged the first fan he saw, a teenage Essendon fan.

Controversially, Hird did not receive any Brownlow Medal votes from the umpires for his 34 disposals; the media speculation was that the umpires deliberately snubbed him because of his earlier comments. The votes went to Matthew Lloyd (three votes, seven marks, eight goals), Ben Cousins (thirty disposals, three goals), and eventual Brownlow medallist Chris Judd (twenty-three disposals).

Hird's winning goal was the focus of a popular installment of the Toyota Memorable Moments advertising campaign,[19] and the hug is captured in Jamie Cooper's painting the Game That Made Australia, commissioned by the AFL in 2008 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sport.
Late career

On 27 September 2005, Hird handed the captaincy to Matthew Lloyd. After Lloyd sustained a season-ending injury in Round 3 of 2006, Hird served briefly as acting captain until young ruckman David Hille was named captain for the remainder of the 2006 season.

Hird missed Essendon's first round win against defending premiers Sydney with a calf injury. In Essendon's horror 2006 season he returned one week early from a minor injury to lead his side to a drought-breaking win over Brisbane in round 17, 2006. It was Hird's first match since round 13 against the Kangaroos, the Dons' first win since April Fools' Day of the same year and Hird's first winning match since round 21, 2005.

Hird continued to be an outstanding performer in his utility role when fit, but age was forcing him to miss games through injury with increasing frequency. He suffered broken ribs and a calf strain during his 200th and 250th games, respectively.

Media career

Following Hird's retirement as a player from the Bombers at the end of the 2007 AFL season, he became a commentator and football analyst for Australian rules football on Fox Sports, a position which he held until he began his coaching career at the end of 2010. Hird also became a writer for Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun. Former Essendon players such as Hird, Matthew Lloyd, and Scott Lucas, who had all taken up media roles since their retirements, were rumoured to be the subject of then-incumbent Essendon coach Matthew Knights's heated press conference following a win against St Kilda, in which Knights asserted that he and his players were now aware of certain people's position for or against him and the direction of the Essendon Football Club. However such comments were ultimately according to Knights, not intended towards Hird or any past player.
Honours

Hird jointly won the Brownlow Medal with Michael Voss in 1996, the award for the fairest and best player in the Australian Football League. After his retirement, Hird stated that being a member of the "Brownlow Club" was a privilege.

In 1997, the Essendon Football Club named the then-triple best and fairest winner in its Team of the Century on the half-forward flank.

In 2002, the Essendon Football Club conducted a fan-voted promotion to find the "Champions of Essendon". Hird was eventually named as the number three player on the all-time list of Essendon players.
 
Personal life

Hird married Tania Poynton on 11 October 1997 and they have four children – a daughter, Stephanie (born April 1999) and three sons, Thomas (born March 2001), Alexander (born August 2003) and William (born February 2009).Tania is the sister of former Young Talent Time performer Greg Poynton.

Hird's grandfather, the late Allan Hird, Sr., was a notable player and president for the Essendon Football Club, and his father Allan Hird, Jr. had a brief playing career with Essendon.

Hird completed a degree as a civil engineer in 1998, and in that capacity has worked as a consultant on the CityLink project. He is now involved heavily in football-related media work, but he has also spent time working for a stockbroking firm. Hird currently co-owns a restaurant called "Red Mullet Fishcaf" located in Glenferrie Road, Malvern and is an active partner in "Gemba – a sports marketing and media consultancy firm based in Melbourne.