Interim Essendon coach Mark Thompson has left the AFL club after his talks with club officials broke down.
The Herald Sun reports Thompson as saying they could not reach agreement.
“I’m out, I’m done,” Thompson is quoted as saying.
“There’s not a job there for me.
“I was happy to work there, but a role could not be agreed upon.”
Thompson met on Wednesday with Bombers chairman Paul Little and chief executive Xavier Campbell.
“In the end, it just didn’t work at all,” Thompson said.
It is only seven weeks since Essendon’s tumultuous best and fairest night, where Thompson gave an emotional speech.
At the time, there was strong speculation he was about to become Gold Coast’s new senior coach.
That night Essendon also appeared on the verge of sacking coach James Hird, after he broke ranks with the club and appealed against their devastating verdict in the Federal Court.
Thompson said at the best and fairest night that he wanted to stay at Essendon, but did not want to go backwards.
This was widely interpreted to mean that he only wanted to continue at the Bombers as their senior coach.
But Hird survived and at this stage will be Essendon’s senior coach next year.
Thompson was interim coach this season as Hird served a 12-month AFL suspension over the club’s ongoing supplements scandal.
The AFL also fined Thompson $30,000, which he has so far refused to pay.
That issue could soon go before the AFL Commission.
Thompson, a three-time Essendon premiership player, coached Geelong to the 2007 and `09 premierships.
He returned to Essendon in 2011 to be reunited with Hird – they were premiership teammates in 1993 – and was their senior assistant coach.
Thompson became one of the stories of this season when he took over as interim Essendon coach, guiding the Bombers back into the finals.
He was also one of the year’s most intriguing AFL personalities.
Working on the basis that he was only coaching for one more year, Thompson gave free reign to his quirky personality – especially at post-match media conferences.
