Essendon's meeting schedule reveals potential coaching front-runner

Four prospective coaches remain in the hunt for the Essendon job, and as Tom Morris reports, the club’s meeting schedule bodes well for one specific candidate.

With three weeks remaining in the 2026 home and away season, Essendon is entering the final stages of their hiring process, set to complete their final meetings this week ahead of a looming decision.

Morris reported last Tuesday morning that the job hunt is down to four names: Fremantle assistant Jaymie Graham, Adelaide coaching director Murray Davis, Sydney assistant Mark McVeigh, and club legend James Hird – with a potential fifth as the club awaits confirmation from interim coach Dean Solomon.

While the final round of interviews allow the candidates one last swing before a decision is made, Morris believes that the Bombers' interview schedule could reflect a potential favourite for the job.

“Essendon has four candidates left in the mix, five including Dean Solomon,” Morris told SEN’s Locked In.

“These interviews, I understand, will all be done by the end of the week.

“The belief is, according to people I speak to today, that Mark McVeigh will be the last interview conducted on Friday, which, based on history, bodes well for Mark McVeigh.

“The reason for this is as follows: when Brad Scott got the job at Essendon a few years ago, he was the last interview. He swooped in, and the interview was a process to ratify him before he got the gig.

“What happened recently in Tasmania – Ken Hinkley got the last interview, and then they offered him the job immediately off the back of that.

“I wonder if these presentations have become a way to ratify rather than a way to really change the order.

“Maybe, just maybe, Essendon’s preferred candidate, based on the order of these interviews, is Mark McVeigh.

“He ticks all the boxes – he has coached his own team before, he is at a good football environment now at the Sydney Swans, he is the right sort of age, he has an Essendon background, he understands the Bombers and their weaknesses.

“He is close to the president, and they will say if he gets the job that that has nothing to do with it, but clearly Andrew Welsh knows him really, really well.

“They are close friends, and that’s an advantage.”