A crucial detail may have revealed the favourite for the Essendon coach job.
Plus a key Melbourne figure is set to depart the club despite their rise up the ladder, as the club separately faces another lawsuit. That and more in AFL Daily!
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Round 22
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DEMONS FACING ANOTHER LAWSUIT
Melbourne is facing more legal action, this time directly from premiership star Steven May, according to veteran journalist Caroline Wilson.
In late June, the club settled with May’s partner Sachi Dade in relation to a privacy concern linked to a pre-season meeting with players’ partners.
Wilson reports while Dade received a six-figure sum in her settlement, May has now served the club separately, also including former CEO Paul Guerra. Coach Steven King and footy boss Alan Richardson, who were sued in Dade’s case, are again involved.
This time, the Demons reportedly do not want to settle.
“Steven May at certain points has said he had no intention of suing the Melbourne Football Club,” Wilson said on Seven.
“We can now tell you that on the 14th of July he served on the club, on the coach Steven King, on Paul Guerra the departed CEO … and Alan Richardson.
“It was under this breach of privacy. The privacy legislation is relatively new, and quite difficult to navigate.
“But I can tell you that unlike Sachi Dade – who Melbourne apologised to and who they settled with – I don’t think the club has the appetite to settle again.
“It’s very difficult for me to talk about, except that they’re two separate people with two separate claims.
“Interestingly Paul Guerra is part of this claim but wasn’t part of that (Dade’s) claim.”
May retired just before the start of the 2026 season having played 128 games at Melbourne, including in the 2021 premiership.
After Dade’s settlement with the Demons, the club released a public apology.
“In February 2026, the Melbourne Football Club leadership team divulged personal and sensitive information about Ms Dade. We acknowledge that this was inappropriate and constituted a serious invasion of her privacy,” it read.
“Ms Dade raised concerns about the conduct of MFC and its leadership team and advocated for change and for training. Our senior leaders, including the Board, the incoming CEO and our leaders in the football department, are committed to taking all steps necessary to ensure this does not happen again.
“We sincerely apologise to Ms Dade and her family for the hurt, distress and impact our actions have caused.
“Signed by: Dan Taylor on behalf of the Melbourne Football Club.”
CRUCIAL DETAIL GIVES AWAY BOMBERS FAVOURITE?
Recent history suggests Mark McVeigh will be the next coach of Essendon, according to SEN’s Tom Morris.
The Bombers’ search to replace Brad Scott is down to Fremantle’s Jaymie Graham, Adelaide’s Murray Davis, ex-coach James Hird and Sydney’s McVeigh, with interim coach Dean Solomon considering whether he’ll enter the race.
A decision is expected within the next week, with a final round of interviews late this week, and McVeigh’s chat is being held last.
Morris, who has previously said he would pick McVeigh as the favourite if he had to name one, believes the interview order bodes well for the former GWS interim boss.
“The belief is, according to people I speak to today, that Mark McVeigh will be the last interview conducted on Friday, which, based on history, bodes well for Mark McVeigh,” Morris said on SEN’s Locked In.
“The reason for this is as follows: when Brad Scott got the job at Essendon a few years ago, he was the last interview. He swooped in, and the interview was a process to ratify him before he got the gig.
“What happened recently in Tasmania – Ken Hinkley got the last interview, and then they offered him the job immediately off the back of that.
“I wonder if these presentations have become a way to ratify rather than a way to really change the order.
“Maybe, just maybe, Essendon’s preferred candidate, based on the order of these interviews, is Mark McVeigh.
“He ticks all the boxes – he has coached his own team before, he is at a good football environment now at the Sydney Swans, he is the right sort of age, he has an Essendon background, he understands the Bombers and their weaknesses.
“He is close to the president, and they will say if he gets the job that that has nothing to do with it, but clearly Andrew Welsh knows him really, really well.
“They are close friends, and that’s an advantage.”
KEY DEMONS FIGURE TO LEAVE
Melbourne GM of Football Performance Alan Richardson is set to depart the club at the end of this season, according to Seven.
The former St Kilda senior coach, who left the club in 2019, then joined the Demons as Director of Coaching before transitioning into his current role for the 2021 premiership season.
He is out of contract at the end of the year and will not continue at the club, continuing their renewal from the Simon Goodwin era.
Richardson, 61, could yet stay in football having been close with Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly (with whom he played at the Magpies), and Port Adelaide turned Tasmania coach Ken Hinkley for some time.
He may also retire.
BOMBERS CRITICISED FOR ‘DOBBING IN’ GREAT
– Oscar Moodley
Essendon great Tim Watson says the Bombers have got “much bigger things to worry about than trying to dob (Leigh Matthews) in” after the Brisbane director’s scathing review on the vacant Dons coaching job.
The Lions great didn’t hold back in his comments on 3AW last week.
“From the outside I said, ‘Oh well, good luck’. If I was a coach, I wouldn’t be going to Essendon,” he said.
“If you desperately want a job, you just go for it, right? But anyone who has choices ain’t going to Essendon.
“A coach is only as good as what’s around him in players and staff and support from the top. “For me, from the outside, I don’t know the Essendon people that well, but I would have no confidence to coach under that regime.”
Journalist Caroline Wilson reported on Channel 7 on Monday night that the Bombers had reached out to the AFL given Matthews’ senior role at Brisbane.
“I can tell you that Essendon CEO Tim Roberts was made aware of these comments and sent a transcript to the AFL and asked them what the AFL was going to do about it,” Wilson said.
“The AFL pointed out that this was a club issue.”
Essendon 307-gamer Tim Watson said on SEN on Tuesday morning that Matthews had always been “very direct in what he has to say”.
“He’s not somebody who goes out there for that click,” Watson said.
“There’s enough evidence to suggest that what he’s saying is not completely untrue either.
“I think the best thing that you can do in this business is point at the scorecard.
“At the moment their scorecard looks miserable.”
The Bombers have just two wins from their last 30 games and just one since they sacked former head coach Brad Scott in May.
They sit dead last on the ladder, with a record of 2-18 and a measly percentage of 64.4 per cent.
Essendon’s finals win drought is 21 years and 334 days old as of Tuesday, with the last September win coming in 2004.
Interim Dean Solomon is the 12th man to take charge of the Bombers since that last finals win.
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