Jay Clark

It didn't feel like they were making a huge amount of progress their first quarter against Richmond.

I thought it was really poor.

And Andrew Welsh on the board thought that he wasn't going to be the man for 2017.

So instead of pretending for the back half of the season...

They've given the reins to Dean Solomon, who will take charge of Michael Hurley, will fill his spot as the backline coach.

But now we're looking at one of the more extraordinary situations certainly I've seen in footy in the past 20 years, and that is the tsunami, the groundswell of support for the Essendon legend, the number five, the former captain and dual premiership player in James Hurd, because Andrew Welsh would have got up this morning, I reckon, and had a shower, and he must have thought, what on earth are we going to do?

Because you've got the John Longmires, the Adam Simpsons and the Ken Hinckleys effectively stepping back from the process now until Essendon makes a decision essentially on his favourite son.

And there's two parts to this decision.

A...

Whether you can bring Hurdy back to the club given the drugs crisis, I think you can.

Forgiveness is a powerful thing.

He's put his hand up for that.

He's made many teary apologies.

The second decision is whether he is the best coaching appointment or coaching candidate in the land.

And this is why I think that Welsh and Essendon need to sit down with him and have a conversation to re-establish his coaching credentials.

I mean, as I understand it, Hurdy is as on point about the modern coaching trends as anyone.

The forward handball, the tactics of it all.

He watches nine games a round.

He's very strong with Brendan McCartney doing the development work at Port Melbourne.

We know how poor Essendon's development has been over the past decade.