ADELAIDE powerbroker Mark Ricciuto says he's torn on the merits of appointing an experienced mentor or younger coach to replace Don Pyke.
'AM I PART OF THE SOLUTION?' Why Pyke walked away
But the Crows' sole premiership coach, Malcolm Blight, is urging a younger coach to succeed Pyke, who quit on Thursday.
Ricciuto, a current board member and the club's only Brownlow medallist, says he's likely to be part of a panel to find the next coach.
Don Pyke walked away from the Adelaide coaching role on Thursday. Picture: AFL Photos
But he's "not set" on whether to pick an experienced head coach or someone untested in the top job.
"There's positives of both," Ricciuto told Triple M radio on Friday.
"We went down the older one when I think Phil Walsh might have been the oldest ever first-time head coach when we appointed him.
"So I do like the experience and maturity and knowledge of an older coach.
"But I also know the game is changing, and we have got a different generation of players that need different things to what we did 10 or 20 years ago.
"So we'll have a real strong think about that."
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Those with past experience as a head coach include sacked Fremantle boss Ross Lyon and Michael Voss, who coached Brisbane for five seasons and has been an assistant coach at Port Adelaide since the 2015 season.
Voss has openly expressed a desire to again become a head coach, and this season interviewed for the Carlton job awarded to David Teague.
The game is changing, and we have got a different generation of players that need different things to what we did 10 or 20 years ago - Mark Ricciuto
Candidates without head coaching experience could include Scott Burns, understood to have been pipped for the Crows' job by Brenton Sanderson in late 2011.
Burns has spent stints as an assistant coach at West Coast, Collingwood and now Hawthorn.
Other potential applicants could include current assistant coaches Ben Rutten (Essendon), Nathan Bassett (Port), Matthew Nicks (GWS) and Justin Longmuir, currently at Collingwood but considered a frontrunner for Fremantle's vacant head coach role.
The revered Blight, who led Adelaide to its only two premierships in 1997 and '98, said the Crows were entering rebuilding mode with their playing group and a younger coach was better suited to taking over.
"It is going to be a much younger group than what Don Pyke has had ... you would love to see a younger coach grow with them," Blight told 5AA radio.