JAMES Hird's coaching future is now the No.1 item in football, and after Essendon's diabolical performance on Saturday, rightfully so.

There are all sorts of big-picture issues to be resolved by the Bombers, such as contracts, the brand and the final outcome of the WADA appeal. Essendon's football and coaching structure appears to be all over the place and there might not be enough hours in the day for the football review - in which Neale Daniher is heavily involved - to work through all the issues.

But taking away all the external stuff and in assessing the Bombers purely on their week-to-week football, they are falling away badly.

There is too much talent on the park for this team to be losing by triple-figure margins to the likes of St Kilda and Adelaide, especially on their home deck at Etihad Stadium. Jobe Watson and Michael Hurley are significant absences, but their injuries should not make the Bombers 20 goals worse off.

What is alarming about Essendon is there is no plan B. The Bombers play a frenetic, one-paced football and that's it. They don't play tempo football when the opposition gets a run-on and that's a failure of coaching.

Tempo footy allows a side to reset its backline, perhaps get an extra number behind the ball, but the Bombers refuse to play that way, which makes it amusing when Hird then comes out and says he feels sorry for the defenders being under siege.

Essendon had just two fewer possessions than the Crows on Saturday, won the stoppages and clearances and were only marginally shaded in centre clearances (18-17) yet were flogged mercilessly.

Sadder still for the Bombers is that they led at quarter-time, like they did last week against Greater Western Sydney and in both instances, their statistical domination should have translated to bigger leads, which changes the complexion of the match entirely.

Hird is coaching passively and the optics in the coach's box, where there appears to be little interaction with his fellow coaches, only adds to the talk of dysfunction and division.

Mark Harvey aside, Essendon has an inexperienced coaching team. Who is throwing up the ideas on match days? Who is challenging Hird to think outside the square? Moving Jake Carlisle – who you cannot imagine remaining with the club next year – forward and back depending on the week and the opponent, is not particularly inventive. And it has done the player no good whatsoever.

Hird could not have picked a worse period to be coaching badly. Never mind how the club is faring. Essendon's footy now is as bad as the 1970's, when apart from three elimination final defeats, the club was far closer to the bottom than the top and was derisively known for a time as The Gliders.

The decision to replace Hird as coach is becoming easier for the Bombers to make by the week, unless he can deliver a coaching performance in the next three weeks every bit as magical as those he regularly turned on when he was an Essendon champion.

The Bionic Man

After the euphoria following last year's Grand Final eventually subsided, the Hawthorn fitness staff still faced a major issue with Cyril Rioli.

They had got him to the starting line for the Grand Final, but the preparation was like that of a Melbourne Cup horse. He was trained up for just the one match.

But the regimen involved in getting him for six months of week-in, week-out football was entirely different again, and Andrew Russell and his team deserve fulsome praise for basically re-engineering Rioli into the durable athlete he has become.

His six-goal haul against Geelong on Saturday night was his equal career-best and provided further proof that he is currently enjoying the finest of his eight seasons with the Hawks.

Rioli isn't giving those who want more possessions any joy. His demolition job against the Cats came on the back of just 12 touches. But as always, that doesn't tell the complete story and the assists and the work away from the ball remains in a class of his own.

Rioli also deserves some praise. He was minutes away from being scratched from the Grand Final, plagued by a massive dose of self-doubt. The Hawks put it on him and he responded, and then sailed through a searching pre-season in which endurance was the key.

Hawk coach Alastair Clarkson played down talk about Rioli on Saturday might and you can hardly blame him. Why put the mozz on him?

But Clarkson will be thinking about how to proceed from here. Yes, the Hawks need to keep winning to press their claims for a top-two berth and the myriad of benefits that accrues. But there is a game in frigid Launceston on the horizon against the hardly-threatening Brisbane Lions. Aurora Stadium was where he pinged his hamstring for the second time last year.

Rioli has played 18 of 19 games this year (missing one for personal reasons) after returns of 15 and 12 the two years before. Watching Rioli might be the only reason to tune in to a Hawks-Lions clash but maybe, just maybe, that's the week to put his feet up.  

Other round 20 observations

1. Good response from the Sydney Swans on Friday night when staring into the abyss against Collingwood. The Pies had all the momentum, but the Swans found another gear for the win that keeps them right in the frame for a top-four finish. But the loss of the consistent Luke Parker, almost certainly for the season, is a searching blow for a side that needs its midfield at full strength and playing well in order to challenge the best teams. They need Lance Franklin back to ensure no more hiccups between now and the end of the season.

2. When all is said and done, Collingwood fared about as well as most people expected this year, which was just in or out of the top eight. The inaccuracy hurt on Friday night as it did a few weeks back when the Pies had the Hawks beaten everywhere but on the scoreboard. But this column has been bullish about the medium-term and long-term prospects of the club, and that hasn't changed. Tidy a few areas and the Pies could be top six next season.

3. The pluckiest loser of the round? That would be Greater Western Sydney, which pushed Port Adelaide until very late in what became a 21-point loss at Adelaide Oval. Given the considerable outs before the game – Stephen Coniglio, Tom Scully and Adam Treloar – the Giants were well below full strength, but their industry and their attitude was first-class. It is a matter of when, not if, for the Giants and they will play finals next year. And well done to Rhys Palmer, whose first-quarter fumble brought back memories of Malcolm Blight mistakenly dribbling the ball through the points and Percy Jones kicking the goalpost instead of the ball, for rebounding well to kick five goals.

4. One tackle in the first quarter for Richmond. The scoreboard took care itself against Gold Coast, but it wasn't the sort of physical response needed after a poor outing in Adelaide last year. The Tigers won't win finals if they open games like that.

5. Adelaide people can be rightly peeved that after a 112-point win, that the losers get all the attention. The Crows' destiny is in their own hands now and they have a massive home game against West Coast in a fortnight. But the shout out again goes to Patrick Dangerfield, who was sublime once again. You wouldn't know he is the most coveted player in the country with a massive decision to make at the end of the year, the way he presents for Adelaide every week. His playing future might well be at Geelong from next season but he continues to leave nothing in the tank while playing for Adelaide.

6. All eyes will be on the AFL Tribunal this week. It is almost certain the Match Review Panel will send Fremantle’s Alex Silvagni straight to the Tribunal for his brutal clash with West Coast's Jamie Cripps. Last week, Bomber Adam Cooney got away with a one-match suspension when his case was referred directly to the Tribunal, a finding that most reasonable observers thought was outrageous. Silvagni should be looking at least a three-match suspension because this was a throwback to the 70s, and if the Freo defender plays again before the finals, there will be an uproar.

7. The Bulldogs will play a home final, whether that will be week one or week two. Pity the opponent that gets them at Etihad Stadium if that's how the fixture works out. There has never been a semi-final or preliminary final at the Docklands stadium, but could this be the year?