Why 'Spike' is well-armed for unique Essendon challenge

Mark McVeigh ticks all the boxes. A cursory look at his life shows he is exactly the sort of person who is well-qualified to be a senior coach in a high-profile professional sport.

There are just two questions - the first is universal, the second more specific.

Can he succeed as a full-time head coach? Plenty of eminently capable men have sat in the AFL's hottest seat and been found badly wanting.

And can he unite Essendon, winning over or at least nullifying the vocal faction that wanted his great friend James Hird to have the job?

Certainly, if he successfully answers question one, then that will go a long way to solving question two. But at least in the short term, the second issue is bound to bedevil the man known as Spike.

Club president and fellow former player Andrew Welsh is adamant they have their man. Through Tuesday morning's media conference, Welsh raved about McVeigh's credentials.

Welsh also hailed McVeigh as the ideal force to lead their "one club" ethos and reunite the fractured, broken Bombers.

McVeigh played 232 games for Essendon from 1999-2012 and was there when they were consistently an AFL powerhouse. He knows what it means - how good it feels - when the Bombers are arrogant and flying.

The end of his playing career was also marked by tragedy and challenge. Brother Jarrad, an AFL player at Sydney, lost his daughter Luella barely after a month after she was born in 2011.

One of the defining moments of the Swans' 2012 premiership was Jarrad and wife Clementine celebrating with second child Lolita-Luella. Mark wrapped his brother in a massive hug, a few minutes after the final siren.

When Mark was at Essendon in 2011-12, he was one of the players involved in their disastrous drugs program - a debacle that continues to traumatise the Bombers. The scandal and its ongoing fallout has fuelled the push to bring back Hird as senior coach.

McVeigh retired in 2012 but was still among the 34 players to serve anti-doping suspensions in 2016, when he was barred from working as an assistant coach at GWS.

In 2022 he became the Giants' interim senior coach when Leon Cameron left, with Hird serving as one of McVeigh's deputies.

Eventually, Adam Kingsley took over and McVeigh left for an assistant coaching role across town at the Swans.