G'day Fellow Demons Supporters,

I've decided to make a thread about the possible choices that I would have as coach of the Demons.

I understand its purely hypothetical..but there's nothing wrong with that.

Here are my choices in order.

1# Guy McKenna

2# John Longmire

3# Michael Voss

4# Denis Pagan

5# Gary O'Donnell

6# Mark Harvey

7# Chris Connolly

8# Mark Riley

9# Kevin Sheedy

10# Malcolm Blight

These selections are chosen from most likely to coach the Demons to least likely.

GO DEMONS IN 2008?

From Supreme_Demon

I say let's go radical- Michael Voss with Sheeds as mentor for 2 years. Sheeds can do some media, AFL bits whilst being the right hand man for Vossy or Viney or Riley.

Love the photo collection- Vossy wins hands down in the looks!!!

i keep hearing rumou8r voss signed with carlton

Could Gary Ayres be a dark horse?

John Longmire looks like brick from anchorman

I believe we need a coach that will inspire our younger players. If i was drafted to MFC I would want to be coached by Voss. He's done everything that could be done, just having someone in the club that can talk about winning a Brownlow and winning three prems would stir up alot of emotion and get that hunger we need. He is a natural born leader, has a midfielders brain where the games are won, and could bring people like Al Lynch to the club as forward coach. He wouldn't be as expensive as past coaches and has been coached by the greatest footballer of the century. There is a pattern here, Matthews had great success at Hawthorn and Brisbane Coaching. Voss had great success at Brisbane and could bring that success to MFC as a coach. You wanna be the champions you gotta have them

Voss wont coach Melb. I would like to see Guy McKenna but I have a fealing that our board things our list is still capable of winning a premiership in the next two years and will go for a Pagan or Sheedy for a short term fix. Our list isn't that bad but with Neitz, Robbo, Yze, McDonald, White set to retire in the next couple of seasons plus Pickett, Brown, Ward, Holland, Bizell all 30 or turning 30 will also be gone. That nine players with a lot of experience we have to replace in 1-3 years.

With three tried coacches two with multipul premiership success will the club go short term our take the risk on a current assistant or an untried coach. Personally you would have to question the desire of SHeed's and Pagan both around 60yo and have nothing left to prove. Compare that to a Mckenna, Rattern and co all hungry to catch and make a carrear out of it.

Tough call but if I was a coach this wuld be my order of the clubs

Fremantle, good list heaps of money great facilities will accept just making finals

Melbourne, Ageing top end of list but IMO has better upside with the kids coming through, Money is tight Poor facilities, the club needs a flag

Essendon poor list money to burn great facilities will always e compared to sheedy

Carlton second worst lsit in the comp, besides a rich president the club has no money, supporters think they should always play finals

My tips on how will get the jobs

Fremantle- Sumich ex South Freo boy won a flag with them a few years ago

Melbourne- McKenna my pick but I can see our board picking Pagan or Sheedy

Essendon-Daniher

Carlton-Voss

Malcolm Blight

I'm with you DrDrake.

I think the ultimate win/win would be to appoint Sheedy for 4 years and let him trade draft picks for experienced players THIS YEAR with the idea of having a serious crack for a flag next year. That means trading our first draft to pick up a player like Pavlich to fill a gap rather than recruit someone who might come good in 3-4 years. And, regardless of where we finish next year, 'clean house' at the end of the year and start a re-build the year after. This would then give him three years (not too long) to build another team.

IMO Sheedy is head and shoulders above any other candidate in regards to building the Melbournefc brand, and what better year to have him on board than one where we are going to be in the spotlight so much!! Four years at Melbourne could be what the club needs to push the club back up to where it should be in terms of membership and financial sucess. Who knows he may even create a few 'block buster' games for us to help us achieve this.

FWIW I think if the club appoints a younger, perhaps untried coach, it will definitely come with a longer term contract and the licence to re-build, doing this, as DrDrake has illuded to, would definitely end the careers of most of our experienced players and, in my opinion, would probably prompt players like Neitz, Yze and White to retire. I feel that this would be a tragedy when there is still a real chance of a flag in this group!!

FWIW I wouldn't want to see Pagan, Connelly or Riley appointed next year. Only because ALL premiership coaches apart from Paul Roos (who only won his flag by a kick) have been premiership players.

Go Dees - Onward and Upward.

If he does come tell him to bring Alwyn Davey!

Voss needs to be careful if he goes to Carlton. Yes, a blank cheque from Mr Visy with all the assistant coaches money can buy. However their list is tish. Vossie's 5 year contract will give him little comfort half way through year 3 when they are still out of contention - Voss gets sack and payout, and his coaching career has permanently turned to dust.

Btw Toad - how embarrassing for Roos to only win a flag by a point. I wouldn't find that acceptable for the Dees. B)

Btw Toad - how embarrassing for Roos to only win a flag by a point. I wouldn't find that acceptable for the Dees. B)

I know this comment is in jest, but the point made by Toad about premiership winning coaches being former premiership winning players is a very poignant one. I completely agree we need a coach that's tasted premiership glory at coaching (not sure if that equates to assistant coaching) or playing level.

So for me -- possibles: Voss, Ratten, McKenna, Sumich, O'Donnell, Longmire, Harvey, Pagan (yuck!), Sheeds, Laidley (will get another contract at the Roos I'm sure)

no-way Jose's: Connolly, Grant Thomas, Bond, Viney, G. Lyon,

Probably forgetting heaps of contenders here. I think the worst thing we could do personally, is to get an ex-Dee in as coach. We haven't tasted a flag for over 40 years so the only ex-Dee candidates out there will have been ingrained with that recent Melbourne culture of mediocrity. We need someone from outside our tribe to come in and show us the way to win (Danners almost achieved it but not quite and then he learned to epitomise the mediocrity of our club...poor guy).

My personal preference out of the possibles listed would have an emphasis on recent premiership success as player/coach/assistant so my shortlist is probably: Voss, Sumich, Longmire (hardly an inspiring list of candidates when I look at it).

As for the idea of bringing in Sheedy, t'would be a gamble for sure and one that I'd be almost willing to take a punt on for the extra-curricular benefits and noteriety he'd bring to the club.

As for my worst possible nightmare...here's a hint, first name starts with a C and last name starts with a C

p.s you'll notice no Riley mentioned, career coaches rarely work out (was/is Pagan a career coach? if so, he's an exception because of the awesome list he had at his disposal at North in the 90's).

Get McKenna to the Dees i say, he played in a good era of footy and he was a tuff nut.

I think he would bring the toughness back to the club that we had few years ago.

He doesn't seem like the sort of bloke that that would take any sh#t either and that is

just what the club and some players need. Hopefully a complete change in club culture.

Just my thoughts anyway.

Juice Newton captain coach

Would Gary Ayres put his hand up or will he go for Essendon job

I know this comment is in jest, but the point made by Toad about premiership winning coaches being former premiership winning players is a very poignant one. I completely agree we need a coach that's tasted premiership glory at coaching (not sure if that equates to assistant coaching) or playing level.

So for me -- possibles: Voss, Ratten, McKenna, Sumich, O'Donnell, Longmire, Harvey, Pagan (yuck!), Sheeds, Laidley (will get another contract at the Roos I'm sure)

no-way Jose's: Connolly, Grant Thomas, Bond, Viney, G. Lyon,

Probably forgetting heaps of contenders here. I think the worst thing we could do personally, is to get an ex-Dee in as coach. We haven't tasted a flag for over 40 years so the only ex-Dee candidates out there will have been ingrained with that recent Melbourne culture of mediocrity. We need someone from outside our tribe to come in and show us the way to win (Danners almost achieved it but not quite and then he learned to epitomise the mediocrity of our club...poor guy).

My personal preference out of the possibles listed would have an emphasis on recent premiership success as player/coach/assistant so my shortlist is probably: Voss, Sumich, Longmire (hardly an inspiring list of candidates when I look at it).

As for the idea of bringing in Sheedy, t'would be a gamble for sure and one that I'd be almost willing to take a punt on for the extra-curricular benefits and noteriety he'd bring to the club.

As for my worst possible nightmare...here's a hint, first name starts with a C and last name starts with a C

p.s you'll notice no Riley mentioned, career coaches rarely work out (was/is Pagan a career coach? if so, he's an exception because of the awesome list he had at his disposal at North in the 90's).

A lot of interesting points there, some of which I agree with. Just want to comment on a few.

Denis Pagan - has had a shocking run with Carlton but his coaching ability is grossly underrated. People look at Carey and think how could he have not won a flag with him, but his record before that (5 u/19 premierships with North from 9 GF appearances and one reserves premiership with Essendon) is fantastic. He dealt with issues of list management and player development extremely well there and it is questionable whether Carey would have been the player he was without Pagan (2 reasons in particular - development in his formative years at both u/19 and senior level, and the tactical development of Pagan's paddock to take advantage of his particular attributes).

Premiership player/coach - always a difficult one. Roos wasn't but he was a champion anyway. Pagan wasn't but he had proved himself over a long period of time at lower levels. Before that it's probably Allan Jeans. I've noticed that Damien Hardwick hasn't been mentioned much in many (any) opinions as to who should be our next coach. I'm not saying he should be appointed but he seems to have a lot of the right attributes - multiple premiership player, 3 years experience as assistant coach, reputation as a hard/no nonsense customer.

Sheedy - I'd love to see him at Melbourne in some capacity. Whether that's as a head coach or a loosely defined mentoring role for the entire football department I'm not sure, but it would certainly generate a lot of interest. If he has the latter role, the new coach should be a first timer as it's plainly incompatible to have an experienced coach (certainly Pagan, probably Connolly) operating at the same time.

Voss needs to be careful if he goes to Carlton. Yes, a blank cheque from Mr Visy with all the assistant coaches money can buy. However their list is tish. Vossie's 5 year contract will give him little comfort half way through year 3 when they are still out of contention - Voss gets sack and payout, and his coaching career has permanently turned to dust.

Btw Toad - how embarrassing for Roos to only win a flag by a point. I wouldn't find that acceptable for the Dees. B)

You miss my point 'Tim' (pardon the pun).

The point I was trying to make is that a kick the other way, and Roos would just be another 'runner up' coach like ND and Swooper.

As I posted in another thread last week; I don't think it is a coincidence that nearly ALL premiership coaches in the modern era have been premiership players.

So, in MY criteria it would be the first point a prospective coach should have to meet.

Go Dees - Onward and Upward

Toad, there is an interesting point in there. Premiership player seems to be a good start, and coming from another club tends to be OK also (in our case, the 2nd criteria would have to be met if the first was wanted - unless someone like Noel McMahen feels up to the task). However there have been plenty of duds fitting the criteria - think of some of the Hawthorn alumni from the 80's.

Yeah, Roos was one kick away from being a runner-up coach, but he was also one kick away from being a dual premiership coach. Swooper and ND were runner up coaches by many, many kicks. And Swooper was a premiership player.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I wouldn't want to have ruled out a Pagan or a Roos - who meet neither of the criteria above - and missed out on their premiership results.

Just get sheedy he is our man

For gods sake can people take their hand of if for a moment, KS , DP, CC, and ND have all been told that they will not coach their clubs next year, do you lot think that they will sign with another club this week? Do you think that all these clubs will rush in, dont think so !!, settle down and wait for it to unfold.