‘First I heard of it’: Solomon responds to Hird’s Essendon ‘all-star’ coaching package

Dean Solomon’s inclusion in an all-star team being assembled by James Hird to coach Essendon next year is news to Dean Solomon.

“The first I heard of it was yesterday when someone told me at the footy club,” Solomon said before an Essendon training session on Thursday morning. “I haven’t spoken to Hirdy about football at all, so that’s the first thing I’ve heard of it.”

Hird has announced his desire to coach Essendon next year, following the axing of Brad Scott, and was reported to be gathering a “Team Hird” package should he land the job. Names included Solomon, Mark McVeigh, Dyson Heppell, Hayden Skipworth, James Kelly and Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel as potential football manager.

“As I said last week here, my sole focus right now is this football club, and these players and staff,” Solomon said.

“I can’t look outside of that bubble, it’d be distracting for me, and I wouldn’t be doing the right thing. So, my pure focus right now is on my role, and I’ve got a big role to play on how we finish this year.

“The decisions around who becomes senior coach or who comes in to support the senior coach will obviously be done at the end of the year and from powers above me, so I can’t control any of that.”

Solomon said he had shut off from all media and social media to avoid being distracted, but was made aware by the club’s communication team that Essendon had applied for a priority draft pick, with the Bombers board having written to the AFL, pleading their case for special draft assistance.

“The board obviously have done, would have done, a huge amount of work in working out why we feel like we can potentially apply for that,” Solomon said.

“I just think it doesn’t hurt to ask the question to find out.”

But the interim coach would not be drawn on what sort of young players the beleaguered Bombers needed to escalate a rise up the ladder.

“It’s probably a question for list management, Matty Rosa and his team, they have a much better handle on that,” he said.

The Bombers are looking to bring back Sam Durham (concussion) and Mason Redman (knee soreness) for Sunday night’s clash against arch rivals Carlton, while Jordan Ridley (calf) will come into calculations.

“We will see how he trains and how it feels, discuss with him where he’s at post training,” Solomon said. “But I think we get something like 10 players back between here and post bye, which would be significant for every club.”

Lewis Hayes will not require surgery after an arthroscopy on Thursday found that he had sprained his ACL, rather than rupturing it. The key defender, who felt sore in his return match in the VFL last weekend, will still miss the rest of the season.

The Essendon interim coach said his coaching panel were looking at plans to shut down Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps.

“He’s in great form, and he’s moving as well as he’s moved for a long period of time as well,” Solomon said, “Trying to nullify his impact is going to be a massive challenge, but we are looking to do that.”

Solomon will be coming up against a familiar face in Carlton interim coach Josh Fraser after the pair spent time together as assistant coaches at Gold Coast.

“He’s a great human with a great family,” Solomon said. “We respect the Carlton footy club, and we understand what they’ve done in the last three weeks has been really exciting, but we’re obviously planning to take that away.”

‘Improved our training standards’

Josh Fraser continues to play a straight bat to ongoing questions over his coaching future as well as dampening expectations of a resurgent Carlton claiming a top-10 finals berth.

The interim coach has overseen a stunning form reversal at Ikon Park following the resignation of Michael Voss who stepped down three weeks ago after a dismal 1-8 start to the season.

But in true cliched fashion, the stand-in coach, who has a perfect 3-0 record in charge, said he was not looking beyond Sunday night’s clash with Essendon at the MCG.

“Personally, I’m really big on not looking too far ahead,” he said.

“I think where we are at as a club, it has to be about how we stack training sessions on top of each other, what our habits look like, and that’s going to be really important leading into this week.

“So training today is important for us, the way we execute that, and then you know we literally take that sort of week-by-week approach, given where we’ve been and where we’re at, we can’t afford to look too far ahead.

“I think it’s kept us present to what we need to execute and what we need to do, but that challenge will continue to mount as the season moves on.”

As for throwing his hand up for the Carlton coach job next year, Fraser said, “I do respect the question, but no, I haven’t changed my mind.”

Fraser said Ollie Hollands was nearing a return from an ankle injury, while dismissing concerns about Nick Newman’s fitness.

“Nick will train today, so we expect him to get through and be available,” Fraser said.

Fraser said Carlton’s improvement had come off the back of preparation and then execution during games.

“We’ve had a big focus on improving our training standards, individual growth, moving forward, and getting better,” he said.

“And then to see that come through game day reasonably quickly, we’re still building consistency in that space, but I think the player ownership of that [is evident].

“We know we’re far from a finished product, but we’re seeing some signs, and we do need to continue to build consistency with that.”

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