ESSENDON yesterday endured its bleakest day of the season — a day that started with a mauling from Hawthorn that effectively killed off the Bombers' finals hopes followed by Kevin Sheedy inviting speculation as to whether he will see out the last month of his coaching career at Windy Hill.

After watching a runaway 63-point win by the Hawks, statistically at least, the worst Essendon loss for the season, Sheedy said he "hoped" to see out the last month of his 27 years with the club.

"I hope so. I mean, that's up to the club but I would think I will be coaching up to round 22, unless you guys know otherwise," said Sheedy, who then quipped: "They'll lose a lot of money against Richmond (in round 21), so it might be a very smart decision to keep me."

Essendon chairman Ray Horsburgh quickly ruled out the possibility of a premature exit for the coach and said no performance, however bad, between now and the end of the season would change that thinking. The Dons were held goalless in two quarters yesterday and fell from eighth to 12th.

"I guarantee you he will. Of course he will," Horsburgh said. "Look, despite what everyone said, we didn't sack him. We said we wouldn't renew his contract at the end of the season. I've sacked blokes at work millions of times and when you sack them, they pack up their desk and you send them home.

"We haven't done that with Kevin. All we've told him is that at the end of the year we're not going to renew his contract. He's going to coach out the end of the year guaranteed. As far as we're concerned, at board level, he'll coach out the season."

What is less certain is whether Sheedy's long farewell and his open negotiations with other clubs for next season is distracting the club on match day.

The side, after winning three of its first four games, has won only six of the ensuing 14 so it could be argued that yesterday's defeat was not that much of a shock or related to events surrounding the coach — particularly since Hawthorn beat Essendon by almost six goals three months ago.

The Hawks had lost three of their previous four games, but Essendon — apart from a four-goal flurry late in the third term — has not played so poorly or listlessly since the darkest days of last season.

Sheedy appealed to the players before and during the match to rise to the occasion for James Hird, to provide the injured champion with a last hurrah in September. He got instead a final quarter in which Hawthorn kicked 6.6 to 0.2.

"I've spoken to the team and they've got to be understanding in that situation," Sheedy said of the countdown to his departure and his talks with Melbourne last week and Fremantle this week.

"I'm allowed to talk to other organisations and it's not just other football clubs I've spoken to. It shouldn't. I don't know what the players think. I don't know what other people think."

Horsburgh concurred. "Kevin is a pretty dedicated coach and I don't think anything would distract him from doing what he has to do with the team," said the chairman, who added, about the players: "I haven't got that impression. I think the players are very disappointed with their own performance. They had tremendous motivation to make the finals. Kevin had on the whiteboard before the game that our goal was to make the finals and give Hirdy a chance to play in the finals. They just got beat by a fast-running side."

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said that with finals beckoning — yesterday's win shot the Hawks back into third position on the ladder — it was pleasing to see his team pull out of its slump and play with the zest it had up until July.

"We'd been in a little bit of a trough, the last couple of weeks, and at different stages today there were signs that we've really got our run and our energy and our zip back into our game," he said.

"What we were pleased with was that the intensity and spirit in our game was a little bit better than it had been over the last couple of weeks. Every side goes through that at some period of time during the year and we're just hoping that our little lull is behind us now and we can move on to the Brisbane Lions next week with a good, confidence boosting win.

"We're very much in control of our position. If we play well enough over the course of the next four rounds we'll give ourselves an opportunity to play finals footy and that will be a wonderful experience for our younger group of players.

"But it will also be a great experience for Crawford and Vandenberg and those types of guys if we're able to secure a finals berth."