Thompson and Craig to the Bombers
Mark Thompson has been confirmed as Essendon’s interim coach.
Former Adelaide and Melbourne coach Neil Craig takes the role of head of coaching development and strategy.
Simon Goodwin will be senior assistant.
Neil Craig’s departure from Melbourne was announced earlier today.
In an unexpected move Thompson’s appointment is for the whole of 2014 – including the finals after suspended coach James Hird’s ban expires in late August.
Hird is serving an AFL suspension over last year’s supplements saga, which stretches until late August next year.
Thompson, Hird’s senior assistant, had initially expressed unwillingness to take over the job in Hird’s absence, citing a lack of hunger for a return to senior coaching.
But Thompson, who coached Geelong to the 2007 and 2009 premierships before quitting the club at the end of 2010, said he is now ready to take the job.
He told a media conference Hird would have no input into the side’s preparation.
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Thompson was fined $30,000 by the AFL for his part in the supplements scandal.
Hird has said he wants to return as coach on completion of his suspension, a move which Bombers chairman Paul Little has backed, but now seems to have been ruled out.
Earlier on Thursday, North Melbourne announced the appointment of Leigh Tudor as an assistant to Brad Scott.
The Kangaroos had previously forecast that appointment, but said they were waiting on the Bombers’ decision, as Tudor had been in contention for the Essendon senior coaching job.
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