So you can take it to the bank that James Hird will be the next coach of Essendon.

If not in 2011, then 2012 or not much later after that.

We're not sure whether Wednesday's admission that he would like to one day coach the Bombers was by design or by default.

But if the clock was already ticking on the Matthew Knights era at Essendon, then it is surely now clicking just that bit faster.

You have to feel for Knights, who will again face a barrage of questions about his future when he fronts his weekly media conference at Windy Hill on Thursday.

And he's no fool. Knights was coach of the Bendigo Bombers when Hird was playing his last season at Essendon and he knows the reverence with which the 1996 Brownlow medalist and 2000 premiership skipper is held at the club.

He'll have heard that a Facebook page imploring the Bombers to replace Knights with Hird attracted more than 2500 friends in the first 12 hours since its creation. This is a populist movement that will only gain more traction the longer the Bombers continue to struggle and to underachieve.

And he'll have every right to feel bemused. Knights did the spade work in South Australia and Bendigo before taking the senior job at Essendon. He'll look at Brad Scott and Damien Hardwick, whose promising first seasons as AFL coach were largely made possible by the apprenticeships they served at other clubs. He'll look to the last two premierships coaches, Mark Thompson and Alastair Clarkson and note the hard yards they put in as assistants before becoming senior coaches.

And he'll note the struggles that Michael Voss - his opposite number this Sunday - has undergone since assuming the Brisbane coaching job without having any sort of decent preparation.

But it won't count for much at Bomberland. These are the sorts of decisions that cost administrators and directors their positions. Rest assured that David Evans and Ian Robson are sniffing the wind and if the sponsors and members fall behind Hird in large numbers, then change will happen.

And despite Hird's statements of support for Knights, there will be no "Kiribilli" agreement, as there was between Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley at Collingwood. We can't see Hird giving up his flourishing business interests in order to move witches hats around Windy Hill. When he does move into coaching, it will be as the senior coach, most likely with a seasoned assistant by his side.

Mark Williams anyone?

Knights has two weeks to coach for his life. A win over the Brisbane Lions and a creditable performance against the top-four bound Western Bulldogs may be enough. Two more thrashings and he might as well start clearing out his desk.

The few thousand fans "Hird for coach" fans on Facebook and many thousands of others of a similar mind will see to that.