Dean Solomon has declared he will remain at Essendon next year, even if he doesn't continue as senior coach of the Bombers.

After his side slumped to a 27th defeat from their past 28 starts with a 14-point defeat to underwhelming North Melbourne, Solomon again had to take questions on his ambitions for the coaching job.

Essendon's interim coach since the club sacked Brad Scott in May, the 2000 Bombers premiership player remains winless after four games in charge.

The embattled club on Friday confirmed the panel, to be led by president Andrew Welsh, that will select the club's permanent coach.

While he remains reluctant to publicly put his hand up for the job, Solomon is a serious contender alongside club legend James Hird.

"Whether I'm filling water bottles at halftime, or I'm an assistant coach, I love this footy club, it's a great football club," Solomon said.

"We're in the swamp right now, it's been a tough period of time for a long period of time, but I want to be in here rolling my sleeves up to help this football club.

"I really want to see a club get back to being a great club, on and off the field, and if I play a small role in that, I'm really happy."

Solomon conceded there would come a time when he'd have to decide if he would partake in the process to possibly stay on as Bombers coach.

"At some stage, there will be a conversation that needs to be had, but I'm assuming the short term, next two or three weeks, I've got to just solely focus on this team," he said.

Despite only going down to the Kangaroos by a small margin, Essendon never looked like causing an upset, managing just 35 tackles in a defensive display that frustrated Solomon.

"We had nine players that didn't have a tackle, and three players that had one tackle, so that's not the brand we're chasing," Solomon said.

"The game tests you. It's testing our players, it's testing our whole club right now, so we'll find out about individuals and how we push back on that."

The Bombers' only win since the end of May 2025 came against Melbourne in this year's Gather Round, which ended a club record-equalling 17-game losing streak.

Since that upset, Essendon have suffered another 10 defeats.

Midfielder Sam Durham enjoyed a spectacular start to the game with two first-half goals, but Essendon had few other winners as North controlled possession.

The Bombers had just 23 inside-50s to three-quarter-time but Nate Caddy did bring down a mark of the year contender late in the final term with a superb speccy.

Nate Caddy takes to the skies ??#AFLNorthDons pic.twitter.com/7AyMZIZh4C? AFL (@AFL) June 28, 2026

Already enjoying their most productive season since 2019, the Kangaroos have improved to an 8-7 record and can dream of ending a 10-year stretch without playing finals.

North's ball use and inside-50 efficiency badly let them down, but newly re-signed star Harry Sheezel sparkled with 43 disposals.

Rejuvenated defender Caleb Daniel racked up more than 40 possessions for the second-straight week.

His fellow Kangaroos midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke slotted the first goal of the game, which proved to be the most memorable of the contest.

North captain Nick Larkey endured a frustrating day in front of goal, the usually dead-eyed forward finishing with 1.5 after spraying several gettable chances.

"He's been such a reliable shot for goal, not just for our club, but across the competition," Kangaroos coach Alastair Clarkson said of Larkey.

"Everyone's allowed to have a crook day, I reckon."