James Hird

James Albert Hird (born 4 February 1973) is a former professional Australian rules football player and past senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Hird played as a midfielder and half-forward, but he was often given free rein by then-Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy to play wherever he thought necessary.

He played for the Ainslie Football Club in the ACTAFL, and in June 1990, at the age of 17, he was a member of the league's senior representative team in a match against the Victorian Football Association.

He was recruited to the AFL by Essendon from the 1990 AFL Draft; however, due to a serious hip injury along with other injuries in his junior football career, he was not selected until pick number 79, Essendon's seventh pick and one of the last in the draft.

A series of injuries restricted Hird's appearances during the remainder of the 1990s.

Due to injury, Hird missed out on playing for most of 1991, his first season with the club.

At the end of the season, a vote was held on whether to delist him.

The majority (4–2) voted in favour of Hird being delisted, but coach Kevin Sheedy, sensing a promising future for the young Hird, voted to keep him.

Ultimately, Hird remained with the club.

He made his senior debut against St Kilda in 1992 at Waverley Park as a late replacement for former captain Terry Daniher.

Hird spent most of the season in the Essendon Reserves, which, under Denis Pagan, won the premiership that season.

He achieved regular selection in the Essendon senior team during the 1993 season.

In that season, he was a member of what was referred to as the "Baby Bombers", a group of young players (most notably including Hird, Mark Mercuri, Gavin Wanganeen, Dustin Fletcher, Ricky Olarenshaw, David Calthorpe, Paul Hills and Joe Misiti) that played a key role in the side winning the premiership that year.

In 1994, Hird won the first of three consecutive best-and-fairest awards, culminating in his 1996 season that earned him a Brownlow Medal.

Hird was a highly decorated footballer, with accolades including the 1996 Brownlow Medal and membership of the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

He played only seven games in 1997, and, although he was named captain in 1998 (a position he held until the end of 2005), he was restricted to thirteen games that year due to injury-related issues.

An even worse year followed in 1999, with stress fractures in his foot keeping him to only two games.

In 2000, both Hird and the Essendon Football Club experienced the most dominant season in AFL football to date.

Injury-free, he received numerous honours, including selection in the All-Australian team and the Norm Smith Medal as best on ground in the AFL Grand Final.

The Essendon team also won the Ansett Cup pre-season competition as well as the regular season premiership.

The team only lost one game—against the Western Bulldogs—in the entire calendar year.

The year 2002 then saw Hird's worst injury, a horrific facial injury sustained in a match against when he collided with teammate Mark McVeigh's knee, fracturing several bones; Hird was in hospital for a week and missed several weeks of the season.

In 2003, despite again missing many games through various injuries (eight games in total), Hird tied with Scott Lucas for the best-and-fairest award.

He also narrowly missed out on a second Brownlow Medal, finishing three votes shy of joint winners Mark Ricciuto, Nathan Buckley and Adam Goodes.

He gained a place in the 2003 All-Australian team, the fifth and final time in his career.

One of Hird's more memorable performances was in his Round 3 game against West Coast in 2004.

Up until three-quarter time, Hird had 19 disposals and one goal; in the final quarter, however, he managed 15 disposals and two decisive goals.

Despite the incredible effort, and to the consternation of fans, Hird did not receive any Brownlow Medal votes from the umpires for his 34 disposals and clutch goals, which was perceived by some as retribution for his comments earlier in the week against umpire Scott McLaren, for which he was fined $20,000.

On 27 September 2005, Hird handed the captaincy to Matthew Lloyd following the side's 2005 season in which it missed the finals for the first time since 1997.

In 2008, he was listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as the 20th greatest player of all time in the AFL-commissioned book The Australian Game of Football.

Hird's winning goal was the focus of a popular instalment of the Toyota Memorable Moments advertising campaign, 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.

Hird was appointed as the coach of the Essendon Football Club in September 2010.

In August 2013, he was suspended from coaching for 12 months when he was charged by the AFL with conduct prejudicing the game in relation to his role in the Essendon Football Club supplements controversy.

He returned to the club following the 2014 season but resigned in August 2015.

Hird is the son of Allan and Margaret Hird.

He was born in Canberra, where his father worked in the public service and his mother was a teacher, although they had met in Melbourne.

Hird has two younger sisters.

After first living in the Canberra suburb of Ainslie, his family moved to Latham.

When Hird was in high school, the family moved to the suburb of Reid.

Hird participated in rugby league, ballet, and soccer in his youth.