Now his year as Essendon coach is over, Mark Thompson says he can think about his AFL future.

Thompson’s interim season in charge at the Bombers came to an end on Saturday night with the two-goal elimination final loss to North Melbourne.

He will make way for James Hird, who has served a 12-month AFL ban that was imposed because of the club’s 2012 supplements scandal.

Predictably, there has been plenty of speculation about whether the three-time Geelong premiership coach will stay with the Bombers and work with Hird, or go elsewhere.

Thompson had been a senior assistant alongside Hird at Essendon before this year.

“I won’t be senior coach next year,” Thompson said.

“There will be one coach at the club.

“I didn’t want it to be a distraction and I haven’t given it much thought.

“We’re going to sit down with the club soon and work something out.

“Let’s just wrap this year up first.”

Pressed for how long it will take him to make a decision on his future, Thompson joked: “I will give you two months”.

Thompson said he was bitterly upset that Essendon’s season was over.

Once again, Essendon paid dearly for inconsistency.

They led by 33 points early in the third term before North roared back to claim a comeback win.

“It’s not the way I wanted to finish, I wanted to win some finals,” he said.

“Why not be ambitious? We were capable of doing it and at halftime we thought we’d do it and we should have.”

Early this season Thompson said it was important Essendon develop and not have a gap year while Hird was suspended.

After being kicked out of last year’s finals, Essendon finished seventh this year.

“I’d say it’s a massive success,” Thompson said.

“They (the players) have been put under incredible pressure – just think about where they are right now, their head space.

“To play a final is an incredible effort.”

“We haven’t had a gap year, we’ve had a decent year.”