“Put down your weapons”: Watson calls for Essendon to unite

Essendon legend Tim Watson says it’s time to unify the club in the wake of the Mark McVeigh coaching appointment.

Some factions of Bombers supporters were delirious with the possibility of club great James Hird returning as senior coach of the embattled outfit.

But president Andrew Welsh, CEO Tim Roberts and the board opted against that romance and put another former Don in The Hangar hot seat.

A lot of social media commentary and the SEN text line has been largely negative towards the McVeigh appointment.

But former captain Watson feels it’s time for Essendon people to put their weapons down and unite as one club now that the decision has been made.

“I love my football club like a lot of people love my football club, and the way McVeigh spoke will hit the mark with a lot of Essendon people,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.

“There’s got to be a unification of the club now. People have to put down their weapons and get behind this appointment of a former player - somebody who has been passionate about the football club.

“This is part of the healing process that needs to take place. Ultimately, it’s a much bigger thing than the emotion that might be associated with it now. There is an enormous amount of work to do.

“Congratulations to him. He’s been an Essendon man all his life. He’s loved this football club, that was clear in the days that he played.

“He’s had a great development profile if you look at where he’s been and what he’s been doing. He’s been part of elite coaching departments (at GWS and Sydney).”

Watson acknowledges that this is an enormous job for a young senior coach, but is glad the club did their due diligence in finding the right person to take the club forward.

“He’s got a big job ahead of him,” Watson continued.

“This is a bigger job than just a coaching position. They’ve got to rebuild the club.”

“I’ve aways said run the process, do your background checking and find the best person to coach.”

Watson doubled down on his call for unity.

“Put your guns down, get united, get behind this appointment,” he added.

“Because as we saw when it was demonstrated on the weekend, 30,000 people turned up at Marvel Stadium.

“There are a lot of passionate Essendon people out there and they want to be mobilised.”

He also feels that the Bombers faithful want a coach to take them on a ride, just like the great Kevin Sheedy did.

“Because ‘Sheeds’ built this army of Essendon people there’s an emotional attachment to a coach that Essendon haven’t seen - fleetingly during the James Hird time - but not outside of that,” he said further.

“They had a coach that was bringing them along with the football club and I think there’s a yearning for that type of person to be the coach. That goes against what a lot of other people think in terms of appointing somebody that’s been associated with your club before.

“I think this is a unique situation, I think Mark McVeigh understands that, and I think he’ll drive that part of it like somebody that has had a long association with the club and is emotionally involved.

“But it’s a much bigger job than that.”