Seemingly out of the Essendon coaching race just a week ago, a dramatic betting plunge on James Hird on Monday appears to have the Bombers' great firmly back in the running.

Alice Springs-based Centrebet suspended betting on Monday morning as Hird's odds were slashed from $7 to $3.50.

Agency spokesman Neil Evans said all the money in the past 24 hours had been on Hird to claim the top job ahead of the likes of Mark Williams, Dean Laidley and Alan Richardson.

"We have had several punters from about lunchtime yesterday (Sunday) to again this morning - he has been backed to the exclusion of everyone else in the market," Evans told backpagelead.com.au.

"It's come from a lot of regular AFL Melbourne-based punters. Some have come back several times.

"We have suspended the market betting."

Evans said all the bets had only totalled a few thousand dollars, but two punters had forked out about $1000 each on Hird.

"Something has got out, maybe discussions with the Bombers have gone in his (Hird's) favour," Evans said.

Williams, the former Port Adelaide coach, was still favourite however at $1.70 when betting was suspended.

TAB Sportsbet's Gary Davies said he had been surprised by the plunge but his agency does not take bets on coaching positions.

Hird raised Essendon's hopes that he would make a romantic return to the club as head coach in an interview in the Herald Sun last month where he revealed: "There's something in me, deep in my heart, that says at some point I want to coach Essendon. If I'm not good enough or fail, so be it."

This heaped even more pressure on then coach Matthew Knights, who appeared a dead-man walking at the time. While the former premiership skipper back-tracked from his comments, Knights subsequently was sacked after round 22.

Hird has since denied he wants the role but, noticeably, there has not been no categoric "no".

For Hird to take the top role, he would have to cede his partnership with Rob Mills and Ben Crowe in their successful business Gemba, which is a high priority in his life.

Hird has spent the past week in New York meeting with international tennis powerbrokers in a bid to sell a World Cup-style tennis event called Grand Slam of Nations. The tournament would be held over 10 days every two years.

If those were talks were successful, Hird may find it even more difficult to leave the business world.

However, Hird is a close friend of Bombers' president David Evans. The pair denied Hird had secretly been offered the role last month. There have also been suggestions Williams, a premiership coach with the Power and a former Essendon assistant, and Hird, who are good friends, could share the role for a couple of years before Hird took complete control.

An Essendon insider today said interviews for the vacant role would begin this week, with Laidley to meet with the selection panel of chief executive Ian Robson, head of football Paul Hamilton and premiership star Scott Lucas as early as Wednesday.

The highly-respected Richardson was part of Knights' coaching panel but has used recent interviews to differentiate his planned style from Knights' attacking ethos.

Fremantle assistant coach Chris Scott is set to come into calculations after missing out on the Port Adelaide position.