Footy legend James Hird QUITS football in shock move as he leaves his coaching role with GWS Giants

Essendon icon James Hird’s long AFL career could be over after he quit his coaching role with the GWS Giants in a move sure to shock footy fans.

GWS confirmed his departure after the legend unsuccessfully tried to secure the vacant Bombers head coaching job last year, only to fall victim to a stunning stuff-up during the recruitment process.

He is now believed to be devoting himself to business interests, according to Code Sports.

The 49-year-old joined the Giants in 2022 as a part-time leadership adviser before becoming an assistant coach

The move followed a long break from the game after he left as Essendon boss in 2015 due to the club’s infamous drugs scandal. He led the club for four years.

The footy legend (pictured while coaching the Bombers in 2015) was reportedly told he’d won the job before the club embarrassingly backtracked and went with Brad Scott

When the Bombers job opened up again last year after the sacking of Ben Rutten, Hird applied and was reportedly told he had won the position – only for the club to confess it had made an embarrassing mistake and Brad Scott was getting the job instead.

Hird did not apply for the Giants’ head coaching position when it became available due to the sacking of Leon Cameron early last season.

He was added to interim coach and ex-Bombers teammate Mark McVeigh’s staff at GWS after Cameron’s departure in May.

Hird admitted to being naïve and trusting ‘bad’ people when he opened up about his role in Essendon’s infamous drug disaster, which led to 34 people and their families ‘going through hell’.

The Bombers were at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in the history of Australian sports, with 34 players found guilty on appeal of taking performance-enhancing drugs during the 2012 season.

The 49-year-old made his mark as a superstar player with Essendon from 1992 to 2007, winning the flag in 1993 and 2000 (pictured with coach Kevin Sheedy in 2001)

Hird praised his wife Tania (pictured together last year) for being his rock when the Bombers drug scandal left him contemplating suicide 

Four years later, the AFL suspended the players involved in the scandal for 12 months, while 2012 Brownlow medallist Jobe Watson had to return his medal.

He revealed he contemplated suicide when the Bombers’ drug scandal broke and became the biggest story in Australian sport.

‘Literally, it was far and away the worst time in my life, but by far and away the worst time – more importantly – in 34 players’ lives and a lot of good people in football,’ he said.

‘I really felt for my wife [Tania] because she was trying to hold our family together. She’s a very proud person and also very defensive of me because she obviously saw me going through a lot.

‘I was sitting in the car and had some shocking thoughts about what was next.

Hird recalled a conversation with a representative from Beyond Blue who sent a special mental health response unit from Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital to meet him at his home.

‘I said, “Mate, this is how I feel. I feel like I can’t go on. I’ve brought shame to my family, shame on my football club, my profession. I’ve lost my identity”,’ he said.