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Geelong assistant coach and triple premiership player James Kelly has made pursuing the Carlton senior coaching job a priority and may not be a candidate for the same job at Essendon.
Kelly, who retired from his playing career at Essendon in 2016 and 2017 (he joined the Bombers as one of 10 “reinforcement” players amid the club’s drugs saga) and then served as the Bombers’ assistant coach, has put himself forward as a candidate for the Carlton job and may not be in the running for the Essendon head coaching job at all, according to well-placed sources familiar with Kelly’s situation.
Flashback: Veteran AFL and Geelong premiership player James Kelly announces his retirement in 2017.Joe Armao
The Blues have had coffee or less formal meetings with various candidates and will soon move on to more formal interviews with applicants for the position currently held by caretaker Josh Fraser, who suffered his first defeat on Saturday night at Hawthorn.
St Kilda assistant Corey Enright, Geelong assistant James Rahilly, Fremantle player Jamie Graham, Hawthorn assistant Daniel Giansiracusa and Kelly are among Carlton’s current assistants and candidates for the job. Collingwood’s assistant and head of strategy Hayden Skipworth met Carlton chief executive Graham Wright for discussions last Thursday. The two men knew each other well from Wright’s time at the Magpies as head of football.
Kelly will join former Collingwood head coach, current Geelong assistant and former Magpies champion Nathan Buckley as non-starters for the Essendon job, which the Bombers said last week would involve talking to around 10 candidates in initial discussions.
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Giansiracusa refused to stand for the Bombers from the outset as his assistant left Essendon at the end of 2025 to work with the Hawks and improve his chances of securing a management job. He was a strong candidate for the coaching job at Carlton when the Blues hired Michael Voss after the 2021 season.
Kelly impressed Melbourne when he applied for the senior coaching job, which was filled by another former Geelong assistant and premiership teammate Stephen King, who oversaw a remarkable and unexpected transformation of the Demons in his first season.
Enright, who has been strongly endorsed by St Kilda’s Ross Lyon as a future senior coach, is expected to discuss their role with the Bombers, as well as Carlton’s.
Buckley has prioritized the Tasmania Devils coaching position over Essendon and is not on the radar of the Blues, who have gone the route of bringing in assistant coaches.
At one stage they were planning to speak to ex-Sydney premiership coach John Longmire and ex-Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley, but the industry still believes the Blues are more likely to hire an aspiring coach from among the assistants.
Geelong player James Kelly during his playing days in 2011.photographic
Although Fraser has repeatedly said he will not be in the running for the Carlton job beyond his interim period, the Blues are open to interviewing him later in the coaching search.
Essendon’s field is less clear than Carlton’s, with former champion and Dons coach James Hird announcing his candidacy to Channel Nine shortly after the suspension of Brad Scott and the appointment of Dean Solomon as interim coach for the remainder of this season.
Skipworth, a former Essendon player and assistant coach, is expected to be a candidate along with Enright. The Bombers have been interested in talking to Graham, while Sydney assistant Mark McVeigh, a popular former Bombers player and Greater Western Sydney interim coach, is reportedly a candidate, although this headline does not confirm McVeigh is on the field.
Hinckley said following Heard’s expression of interest that he would not be involved in the Essendon process until they resolved Heard’s issue. He was interviewed by Tasmania, which formally interviewed Buckley and spoke with Longmire.
Solomon said he had not yet decided whether he would seek a coaching role at Essendon, but he is under contract until 2027 and is open to serving in other roles at the club next year.
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL columnist for The Age.Connect via X or e-mail.