Essendon great James Hird admits he was “shocked” to see his son Tom give up a soccer career in order to pursue football.
The Bombers signed Tom as a category B rookie after he opted to pick footy over the round ball, where he’s recently been trialling for a Dutch club overseas.
He earlier trained with the club last year before becoming a fourth generation Hird to join an Essendon list.
"I think Tania and I were both pretty shocked actually that he chose to go down this path. He'd been going very well at his soccer both here and overseas, so we were a bit taken aback that he wanted to go down that path," Hird said on an essendon.com.au podcast.
"He and (Essendon list manager) Adrian Dodoro must have been concocting some sort of plan without us knowing, so we were a little bit shocked but now he's down that path we're fully supportive.
"He's training very hard. It's interesting to get a look at what the players are doing now and the way they need to train, and the club's been very good at setting up a structure for him.
"What I've been very impressed with is not only the physical side of things, but the psychologist's been in touch with him a fair bit and also with Tania a fair bit."
Tom signed an initial two-year deal for Essendon earlier this year.