At Essendon, he said, it would be less about flash and more about work ethic.
The changes to Essendon this year would suggest the Bombers have bought into the Hird message. Reimers wears plain black boots these days, so he certainly has.
But if Hird wants to further illustrate the point about the new, blue-collar Essendon, then at Monday’s team debrief, he will simply switch on the DVD player, throw in a replay of the final few minutes and ask his side to watch - and admire - the work of Dustin Fletcher, who two weeks short of his 36th birthday, again set the shining example.
The ageless warrior almost certainly saved the game against Carlton at the MCG on Saturday for the Bombers with three minutes to go.
Carlton led by a point and small forward Jeff Garlett had the ball and was steaming towards goal when Fletcher chased him and mowed him down to win the free kick.
Essendon had the advantage anyway, so it played on and was able to scramble the match-saving behind that ensured the drawn result.
Hird has seen it all from Fletcher and was happy to heap further praise on his premiership teammate from both 1993 and 2000.
"I said last week he is a star, but this week I’m not sure I’ve seen him play better," he said.
"To hold the backline together - which I thought was very good with the number of forward entries coming in and the way it was coming in - is all due to Dustin."
"At 35, he’s only playing better. He’s putting it all out there and whatever happens, happens. He’s an absolute champion and star of the game."
The knock on Fletcher has been that he has been encouraged to play a free-wheeling game; not always accountable and sometimes shepherded away from the opposition’s best power forward. It is a theory that has never washed with Hird and he again reiterated why on Saturday night.
"There’s always been this talk about him not playing on the best forwards, but he had roles today on their best forwards, roles today on their small players…he played all over the ground, kept cutting off contests and setting up attacks for us."
"There’s nothing more he could have done. He did everything possible to win us the game and it was a really good effort by Dustin."
This is Fletcher’s 18th season of League football and according to Hird he can still be coached, particularly with regards to how the Bombers want to set their structures down back. But it also goes the other way.
"He gives us a fair bit of feedback about what’s going on out on the ground, which is a great thing. He and (defensive coach) Sean Wellman have a great relationship, get on very well having played alongside each other and that sort of coaching arrangement is very good for Dustin."
"But I’m not even sure Kevin Sheedy taught Dustin how to play. There’s a lot of natural instinct in the way he plays and how he positions his body," he said.
