THE POOL of experienced AFL coaches that Melbourne and Adelaide can choose from is getting smaller by the day.
Former Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos has said all year he doesn't think he'll coach again, but rumours persisted he could be lured out of retirement for the right job.
However, as the season draws closer to its finish, it seems we should have taken Roos at his word. Although things can change quickly in football, it's a safe bet he'll still be warming the couch at Fox Sports' studios in 2012.
Mick Malthouse's future once he hands Collingwood's coaching reins to Nathan Buckley at the end of this season is yet to be set in stone. However, in recent weeks he has made one thing clear about his plans for next year - he will not be coaching.
That could change by 2013 if Malthouse finds the coaching director role Eddie McGuire is moulding for him not to his liking. But that won't help the Demons and Crows.
It's true Alastair Clarkson remains out of contract at Hawthorn, something that has not gone unnoticed at West Lakes or AAMI Park. Clarkson's manager, Liam Pickering, recently suggested his client would be happy to meet with the Crows to discuss their coaching vacancy, but it seems a formality the 2008 premiership coach will win a contract extension with the Hawks by the end of the season.
Last Friday, Clarkson all but ruled out leaving Hawthorn. "Something will happen pretty soon, I'm sure," Clarkson told The Mercury.
More recently, 2004 premiership coach Mark Williams has been touted as a sound option for the Demons or the Crows.
The Herald Sun's chief football writer Mike Sheahan wrote last week Williams' record at Port Adelaide from 1999-2009 gave him "undeniable claims" on the Demons' job.
Although Williams is contracted beyond this year as Kevin Sheedy's senior assistant coach at GWS, Sheahan wrote that the Giants would release Williams if a senior offer came his way, while his wife, Pauline, was so keen to return to her hometown of Melbourne she "would walk back with her tribe of children on her back".
However, Williams is the latest experienced coach to rule himself out of the Demons' and Crows' jobs.
Williams told ABC Radio he was not interested in pursuing senior coaching roles for 2012.
Asked how he would respond if approached to apply for one of the vacant roles, Williams said: "I would say I am working for the GWS Giants and enjoying it. I am really happy with what I am doing here, so that is the way it is."
This would seem to leave Rodney Eade as the only realistic experienced contender for the jobs at the Crows and Demons. And Eade is still a good chance to be offered a contract extension by the Western Bulldogs.
If that happens, bet on Melbourne and Adelaide going with the best available candidates from the competition's pool of assistant coaches.
Power should be given priority: Tredrea
Williams led Port Adelaide to a Grand Final less than four years ago, but the Power's fall from grace since then has been stunning.
Despite taking a relatively young team into the 2007 Grand Final, Port has not bounced back from its record 119-point loss to Geelong in that game. It has since finished 13th (2008), 10th (2009) and 10th (2010), and, after 20 rounds this season, sits last on the ladder with just two wins.
Port's 2004 premiership captain Warren Tredrea thinks the Power's plight is so bad the AFL should delay any plans to scrap priority draft picks.
Following sacked Melbourne coach Dean Bailey's admission he managed the Demons' team to give it the best possible chance of gaining early draft picks in 2008 and 2009, AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said the league would review the rules governing priority picks at the end of this season.
In recent years, a priority pick at the end of the NAB AFL Draft's first round has been given to a team that records four wins or fewer in a season, while a team that has two consecutive seasons of four wins or fewer has been rewarded with a priority pick before the first round of the draft. For instance, in 2007 and 2009 respectively, Carlton (Matthew Kreuzer) and Melbourne (Tom Scully) claimed the No. 1 selections in the Draft with priority picks.
Port will be eligible for a priority pick at the end of the first round of this year's Draft provided it does not win more than two of its last four games. Given its 138-point loss to Collingwood last Saturday night and the fact its remaining opponents include Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs and Essendon, that seems a safe bet.
However, if the AFL scraps priority picks at the end of this year, the Power would miss out on a plumb pick before the hyped 2012 Draft.
Tredrea says that shouldn't be allowed to happen.
"If anyone needs (a priority pick), they do. Maybe the AFL, if they look at Port and say, 'Gee, they need some help', might buy (the priority pick system) some time," Tredrea told the Herald Sun.
"Do they abolish it after Port gets the advantage?"
Former Port midfield star Josh Francou also told the tabloid missing out on a potential priority pick would be "a massive blow" for the Power.
Ten picks the not-so-close one
The Age's Rohan Connolly highlighted just how tough it can be for television networks when it comes to football programming.
The networks must nominate their preferred games five months before the season starts, Connolly wrote. Which can lead to the situation Channel 10 found itself in last Saturday night.
The free-to-air broadcaster showed Collingwood's 138-point drubbing of Port Adelaide in bleak conditions at AAMI Stadium, while Fox Sports subscribers enjoyed Essendon's one-point win over the Sydney Swans.
As Connolly put it, Ten put its viewers to sleep with "one of the most monumental mismatches of the year", while Fox Sports' audience savoured "close to the game of the season".
Although the Magpies' rout of Port provided further evidence that one-sided games are on the rise this season, Connolly said the Essendon-Swans thriller underlined the fact we're still getting our share of close ones.
Connolly wrote that 100-point beltings have risen from four in 2010 to nine so far this season, however, 24 games have been decided by less than 10 points, which is comparable to the 30 we saw in the 2010 home and away season.
Anyone who watched the frantic final minutes of the Swans-Bombers match would attest the game, at its best, is every bit as thrilling as it ever was.
In short
Port Adelaide captain Domenic Cassisi has vowed to confront any teammates who didn't put their bodies on the line in last Saturday's night loss to Collingwood, The Advertiser reports. Cassisi said the Power would undertake a searching video review of the loss on Monday.
Hawthorn and Carlton's round 22 clash at Etihad Stadium looms as a de facto qualifying final with the result set to shape the bottom half of the eight and the finals preparations of the top two sides, Collingwood and Geelong, The Age's Rohan Connolly writes.
Ben McEvoy's development has been one of the major reasons behind St Kilda's surge up the ladder after round eight, the Herald Sun's Mark Stevens reports. McEvoy is averaging 16.2 disposals a game in 2011, with West Coast's Dean Cox the only ruckman winning more of the ball.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
