Not only that but both Gold Coast and the Western Bulldogs almost seem to be in no hurry to make their appointments. It is only this week that the Bulldogs have named the selection panel to find the new coach.
All we are hearing from the clubs is that they hope to have their new coaches in place by the time their senior players return to training, which won't be until the middle of next month.
It's a far cry from the coaching arms race of a few years back, which reached the ridiculous stage late in 2009 when North Melbourne named Brad Scott as coach for the following season, while North still had home and away games to play and Collingwood, where Scott was an assistant coach, was preparing for a finals series.
It was that move that sparked a push within the football industry to put the clamps on senior coaching appointments until after those in the running had completed commitments for the year with their existing clubs.
Who would want to coach the Bulldogs?
St Kilda went the other way this time last year. The Saints dispensed with Scott Watters on November 1 – not a planned move, admittedly – and didn't install Alan Richardson as his replacement for another fortnight. Pre-season training was already underway and the national draft, in which the Saints had three of the first 19 picks, was just days away.
The Saints finished bottom of the ladder this year. But none of that could be attributed to Richardson at all - the gaping holes in the St Kilda list and a lengthy injury list helped bring that wooden spoon about.
There are mitigating factors that explain why the Suns and the Bulldogs are able to bide their time. Pre-season training dates are strictly mandated now – start of November for first to fourth-year players and mid-November for the remainder. Teams that make the finals start later again.
And next season will be the latest start to a season since 1978. The home and away season won't commence until April 2 and the NAB Challenge doesn't even kick off until the last week of February, which means the new coaches of the Suns and the Bulldogs will still have three months to get to know their players and to install a game-plan.
And even then, the early days of pre-season is when the fitness coaches reign supreme with their time trials, skin folds and sprint sessions.
Senior dream still burns for Power assistant Voss
That two clubs were able to complete the trade period and ramp up preparations for the draft without a senior coach says something about their status in the game.
We place them on such a pedestal through the season; supporters live and die off their every utterance and the post-match media conferences, particularly on Friday nights, have taken on a life of their own. Any time an AFL coach gets the chop, it is huge news.
Yet the Bulldogs made the biggest trade in their history the day after jettisoning coach Brendan McCartney. Over at the Suns, football manager Marcus Ashcroft had the first and last say over any trade dealings by Gold Coast.
Does it mean coaches are less powerful within the structures of footy clubs than they once might have been? It probably depends on the club. Paul Roos has had a profound influence on all footy matters at Melbourne; it is a key reason he was hired in the first place.
But increasingly, coaches are there just to coach and the football manager, GM of footy or head of football, whatever title he goes by, is where the buck stops.
The wonder is whether they will ever be made as accountable for their club's win/loss record as coaches have always been.
