Turning the blowtorch on James Hird has become something of a game for enough people in this football-obsessed town, fans and media alike.

The Essendon supplements scandal had already made him a popular pariah. The dislike intensified when he clung to his coaching position, then challenged a court ruling. So it was clear the moment things turned sour on the field, his tenure would be questioned again.

What's notable in the latest round of "Hird must go" sentiment, however, is how little of it is backed up by a well-argued plan, indeed any plan at all, for what should happen were he to be removed as coach now.

So let's ponder that for a moment. There'd be a temporary replacement, assistant Mark Harvey most likely. Perhaps that novelty value might inspire a little more competitiveness than Essendon showed against St Kilda on Sunday.

Now weigh that up against a payout in the order of $1 million. Further destabilisation of a club that would have three coaches in the space of 15 games. And attempting to find a permanent replacement while the WADA appeal hangs over the heads of a good portion of Essendon's senior list.

They're facts, regardless of whether you think Hird can or can't coach. And on that score at least, how do we really answer that with any certainty?

His record right now stands at 79 games in charge for 40 wins, 38 losses and a draw – a strike rate of 51.3 per cent. But it has been a coaching stint that has seldom had any clear air to make a considered judgment.

Essendon reached finals in his first season of 2011. The following year the Bombers were 8-1 before a ridiculously long list of soft tissue injuries struck. In 2013, the Bombers were 13-3 and, come round 18, were playing Hawthorn for top spot on the ladder before the governance penalties levied on the club and their expulsion from that season's finals.

None of which makes what has transpired in 2015 any less of a disaster, either. And nor is it to say that Hird doesn't bear a great deal of responsibility for it.

First, he overrated his list. Then he clung too long to the forlorn hope that his team would come good and somehow scramble into the eight. That has meant continued conservatism at the selection table. More players have been given a go of late, but even last week, a promising youngster in Shaun Edwards was omitted after only two games.

Yet even calls about the list aren't simply black-and-white. They don't account for Essendon's exclusion from the first two rounds of last year's national draft, nor, of course, the continuing uncertainty over the futures of those players who are the subject of WADA's appeal against the AFL Tribunal's not guilty verdict on banned substance use.

There's pretty compelling evidence the saga, after close to three years, has driven those players involved to the edge. Look at the recent form of skipper Jobe Watson, a shadow of his former self, and the rapid decline of Brendon Goddard.

Those two have borne the brunt of being the Essendon playing group's public face over three years of unrelenting controversy and pressure. How can their simultaneous downturn in performance and dejected countenances be merely coincidence?

And if you think that's a lame excuse, and that this is about Hird having "lost" the players, whatever that is actually supposed to mean, how do you then account for the current form of three more players involved now at other clubs?

Stewart Crameri is stuck in the Western Bulldogs' reserves, unable to break back into their best 22. Angus Monfries has kicked three goals in Port Adelaide's past four games and hasn't had more than 12 disposals in any of them. And Paddy Ryder has struggled all season and had the grand total of three touches last week against Sydney. Until the WADA business is resolved, the pall hanging over the players remains.

And for all the talk of the Bombers being "unable to move on" while Hird remains, another glib motherhood statement, actually doing that involves a lot more than one man, albeit one who seems to have become the personification of the whole sorry mess.

That is a simplistic view of a very complex story. Just like the removal of Hird as Essendon coach after some bad defeats is a simplistic solution to some deep-seated problems.