Buckley has unfinished AFL business. I'm not sure I'm completely on board with the idea (not a fan of cultural undercurrents during his pies tenure), it would be a great middle finger to see him raise the Premiership cup in red & blue rather than black & white.

33 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Longmire has, I believe, settled in in Sydney. Would he be at all interested in changing homes again, even if we did want him?

But, would having a horse on board help with our overtures to Caulfield?

Longmire is definitely open to moving back to Victoria.

On 05/08/2025 at 09:32, deespicable me said:

Ok. This is the perfect time to introduce Clarry to the role of Captain/Coach. You beauty. Go Clarry.

😂he is an accomplished media performer 😬

11 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

Craig Jennings has always intrigued me.

Currently the GWS midfield coach, but has worked under Pagan, Sheedy/Hird, Beveridge and spent four years at the MFC.

Never played seniors (and Fagan has shown this isn’t crucial) but is highly regarded as one of the sharpest football minds in the business (he’d occasionally appear on Whatley’s SEN show with some of the best game-analysis I’ve heard).

He’s an eccentric guy. Currently living in a van near the GWS training facilities (his family are back here in VIC) and recently built a shelter for the stray cats around there. He was contracted for 9 months up there, but Kingsley has held onto him for three years now. He’s probably pretty keen to sleep in a house again.

Fun shout. I'd love to see us try something a bit left field.

I want us to take a risk on an innovator, a coach who can think creatively and who isn't afraid to try something totally different strategically and from a list management perspective.

Extra points if he's a total eccentric who can make post match press conferences worth watching.

Essentially, I'm asking for the AFL's version of Mike Leach.

17 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

Longmire is definitely open to moving back to Victoria.

How do u know this D11? Have u heard it somewhere or was it written somewhere.

I propose a joint appointment of two experienced former coaches to share the job. A horse that bucks, if you will. Giddy up!

18 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

How do u know this D11? Have u heard it somewhere or was it written somewhere.

From an extremely reliable source

11 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

From an extremely reliable source

From the horse's mouth?

54 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

Longmire is definitely open to moving back to Victoria.

I'm definitely not open to him moving back to Victoria.

Bucks would be great if only to see Pies supporters hurling abuse.

Hinkley, well he would finally get to coach Gawn, perhaps.

Perhaps an untried coach with one of these more experienced coaches as head of football?

1 minute ago, Fritta and Turner said:

I'm definitely not open to him moving back to Victoria.

Bucks would be great if only to see Pies supporters hurling abuse.

Hinkley, well he would finally get to coach Gawn, perhaps.

Perhaps an untried coach with one of these more experienced coaches as head of football?

Hinkley would tell the dees players to take max out off the ball just out of habit.

the Hinkley appointment does become interesting if it increases our chances of luring Zak butters.

You don’t make a coaching call because of that but if it’s a 50/50 choice for example perhaps that becomes a factor

34 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

I propose a joint appointment of two experienced former coaches to share the job. A horse that bucks, if you will. Giddy up!

How about Simpson and an absolute donkey...take your pick

2 minutes ago, Fritta and Turner said:

I'm definitely not open to him moving back to Victoria.

Bucks would be great if only to see Pies supporters hurling abuse.

Hinkley, well he would finally get to coach Gawn, perhaps.

Perhaps an untried coach with one of these more experienced coaches as head of football?

Hinkley over Longmire spare me, Longmires record is far superior to Hinkley

1 hour ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

He sounded very keen without trying to sound like he was to keen.

He sounded like a child who knows they might be a year too old to still be excited about Christmas being excited about Christmas.

One thing Longmire and Goodwin have in common is that they both give absolutely nothing away in their press conferences. (Which is the polite way of saying they are truly boring.) However, that shouldn't be a pre-requisite for getting, or not getting, the job.

If we take Brad Green's comments at face value (and that's risky, I know), the media commentary that Longmire is on the top of our wish list is just bunkum. It might end up that way, but I suspect we have moved on Goodwin now to give us time to work out what we want. Putting it another way, if we were settled on someone already (whether it's Longmire or not) we would have waited until the end of the season to farewell Goodwin.

You all need to stop reading every bit of football media. They just drag up the same old names for clicks and I suspect most of it is speculative, especially the stuff on X (formerly Twitter).

I'll wait for when the new coach is appointed, whoever it is.

1 hour ago, gs77 said:

Buckley has unfinished AFL business. I'm not sure I'm completely on board with the idea (not a fan of cultural undercurrents during his pies tenure), it would be a great middle finger to see him raise the Premiership cup in red & blue rather than black & white.

Buckley was undermined by a very bitter Malthouse in their so-called succession plan. Malthouse was filthy as a result.

Here's a pros/cons list I've quickly done:

Longmire

Pros: Proven track record that's recent. I think his grand final losses are overblown. The dogs were gifted with some unbelievably biased umpiring decisions, the Cats of 2022 were unstoppable like us in 2021 while I think if you look back on 2024, the Swans were on the decline much before the grand final and had a very makeshift forward line. He's well liked by his players, charismatic, values kicking and the outside game. He has a strong reputation and will help us bring players in and retain players. The other thing is that Horse comes from the Roos model that was set up here which created the stability to set us up for 2021. By selecting Longmire we still tie back to that legacy.

Cons: I worry that he may have a completely different view to the board. The board thinks this list can play finals, he may disagree and from the outset cause tension. This was Mick Malthouse's undoing when he joined Carlton. Note, I think this also might be an issue with Carlton again for Horse

Bucks

Pros: Charismatic and has an enormous standing in the game. I can guarantee you someone like Petracca would love to be coached by him. He's Well liked by players, a big profile and someone who will help make us relevant again purely because the media love him. If we start performing well, we'll quickly be seen as a destination club again. Also very close to being a premiership coach and a good tactician.

Cons: He was a very dour and defensive coach which annoyed a lot of Collingwood fans. He's been out of the game for quite some time and I wonder how well he'll pour his heart into this gig given he has black & white running through his veins. Goodwin loved making Melbourne great again while I think Buckley would get more satisfaction in making himself a premiership coach rather than making Melb great. This is just purely speculative but he seems more self absorbed than Goodwin was or what Horse is.

Simmo

Pros: Premiership coach, charismatic, deep thinker and seemed well liked by his players. Feel he's similar to Goodwin with his approach. Also a great tactician and took the completion by storm with the Weagles web.

Cons: It's hard to ignore the rapid decline of the Eagles and some of their putrid performances under him. He once coached a team that let the Swans score 200 pts against him. I understand they had a ridiculous injury list and some of the shocking list management decisions crippled his team but how much is he culpable for their decline? The board would have to do a lot of digging I think on him.

Hinkley

Don't even bother considering. No real success with a terrible finals records. It's remarkable he lasted this long and probably should have been sacked immediately after 2023.

The untried coach

Pros: The board goes through an extensive process rather than directly appointing one of the above or rather shortcuts the process with a confirmation bias on one of the above. The AFL landscape has seen some terrific recent success stories such as McRae and Kingsley. However, in McRae's case the whole footy department changed so you'd think at least 5-6 changes. Could we follow suit and be back in the top 4 in 2026 or would the luck run out here and we become a similar case to a Brendan Bolton or a Rutten?

Cons: The riskiest approach in my opinion where we have to ultimately rely on this board and the coaching selection process they set up to be watertight. This is a board that hasn't gone through this process(probably ever) remembering that Paul Roos was basically selected by the AFL. Untried coaches also mean greater issues with player retention for this off season and also in some ways hurts our relevancy. The Suns wallowed in this for ages until Hardwick came in and all of a sudden they're a destination club.

Honestly I’d go with Buckley. He’s clearly keen given our list and young playing group.

I think we’d be going backwards with Horse or Simmo. Possibly for another role sure but not as senior coach.

Neither Simmo or Horse have the aura and gravitas of Bucks.

Please not Hinkley....the great choker in finals. He had a great list and won sweet naff all.

Hearing pretty strong mail that Buckley is locked and loaded but I don’t understand how we can afford him if we have to absorb $1m in the soft gap for Goodwin next year?

Is it backending the new coach’s salary (which could screw us in future years) or do we just have a very small budget for assistants?

2 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

Hearing pretty strong mail that Buckley is locked and loaded but I don’t understand how we can afford him if we have to absorb $1m in the soft gap for Goodwin next year?

Is it backending the new coach’s salary (which could screw us in future years) or do we just have a very small budget for assistants?

If we have Buckley, or anyone for that matter, already locked and loaded then I will lose any semblance of sanity that is left. We need a deep dive on the available candidates and a considered decision, to have it locked up already would be a joke.

From my understanding of the Football Department spending, there's no front ending or back ending of contracts. Hawks and Clarkson did negotiate spreading his final year over multiple years to minimise the effect on the cap, approved by AFL (another hurdle for MFC).

7 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

Hearing pretty strong mail that Buckley is locked and loaded but I don’t understand how we can afford him if we have to absorb $1m in the soft gap for Goodwin next year?

Is it backending the new coach’s salary (which could screw us in future years) or do we just have a very small budget for assistants?

we can take the $1mill over consecutive years, doesnt have to be a lump sum

8 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

Hearing pretty strong mail that Buckley is locked and loaded but I don’t understand how we can afford him if we have to absorb $1m in the soft gap for Goodwin next year?

Is it backending the new coach’s salary (which could screw us in future years) or do we just have a very small budget for assistants?

Your mail is full of it… no way they have decided on a coach.

23 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

d. Thats why we are here.

Whoever they bring in has to be fresh

1 minute ago, Tracca said:

we can take the $1mill over consecutive years, doesnt have to be a lump sum

Only if the AFL apptrove, which they did for Clarkson. You'd hope there would be a degree of conistency, but it's the AFL. I'd hope the Board asked this question before making its decision.