McVeigh has impressed the Giants with the way he has carried himself and managed the playing group since taking over after Leon Cameron left the club.

Specifically McVeigh’s candour in rebuking all but eight of his players publicly who had “checked out” during the 73-point loss to Sydney drew praise among the Giants hierarchy.

Ironically, given Essendon are chasing a new senior coach, it is the Giants that have more Essendon flavour on their coaching panel than the Bombers themselves.

McVeigh, the former Don, has old teammates and former Essendon coach James Hird and Dean Solomon with him in the coaching box. There are some at Essendon who are pushing for Hird to make a comeback to the club.

On Thursday at his press conference ahead of the Giants’ final game of 2022, McVeigh was praiseworthy of Kingsley and Yze.

“They’ve been through the process like I have, they’ve been in the system a long time and worked under some pretty good coaches and been in some good environments,” McVeigh said.