Australian Football League side Essendon is "likely to sack coach James Hird and make an 11th-hour bid to regain Mark Thompson, keeping him from accepting the vacant Gold Coast head coaching position," according to Greg Denham of THE AUSTRALIAN. On learning of reinstated coach Hird’s decision to start appeal proceedings against last month’s Federal Court finding validating the joint AFL-Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority probe, "Essendon called a specially convened board meeting" on Thursday. That could lead to Hird’s dismissal "and the offer of an immediate appointment to the senior coaching position for Thompson." The Essendon board "considered Hird to be going in a different direction to the club, with his future in limbo." If Hird is sacked, "the Bombers will be hoping that Thompson accepts the senior job with Mark Harvey as his senior assistant" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/2). In Sydney, Jake Niall wrote some senior Essendon players tried to persuade Hird "not to go through with his plan to appeal to the Federal Court verdict." Thompson "was non-committal about his future with the club when asked about it on Monday." Essendon's players, on the whole, "do not want the club to appeal the Federal Court decision -- putting them at odds with Hird, who maintains that the process of the ASADA investigation was unlawful and a denial of natural justice" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 10/1). In Sydney, Margie McDonald wrote the National Rugby League "refused to budge on changing any aspects of its judiciary system in light of Issac Luke joining the list of players to miss out on a grand final through suspension" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/2).