Former West Coast coach Adam Simpson has recently met with North Melbourne football boss Todd Viney as the Kangaroos start the process of replacing Alastair Clarkson.
7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary has revealed that Simpson is now considering his next steps and whether to put his hat in the ring for the vacant coaching position.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Adam Simpson weighs up North Melbourne coaching role
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Simpson was of course a former captain of the Roos, and played in their 1996 and 1999 premiership teams
“Simpson was on the panel that chose Josh Fraser as coach of Carlton a month ago, now he’s considering his own place (on the coaching landscape),” Cleary said.
“The Roos have started their informal catch-ups to gauge interest in the market and insist that every candidate will need to go through the same process.”
Simpson, a premiership coach at the Eagles, was immediately linked to the job after North Melbourne sacked Clarkson at the start of September.
And many believe he would be a great candidate, however, AFL great Nick Riewoldt is troubled by the optics given he interviewed prospective coaches when he was on the Carlton panel.
“So there’s a legitimate question to be asked here about this and I’m referring to his role as part of the Carlton coaching panel,” Riewoldt said on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.
“So Adam hasn’t done anything wrong. I’m not casting aspersions on Adam or his character. He hasn’t even put his hand up yet. But if he does, I think the optics aren’t great.
“Should you be sitting on a coaching panel months before competing with some of those coaches for the same role?”
Needless to say, Simpson did not know Clarkson would be terminated when he accepted the Carlton gig.
“But you can’t give a prospective coaching candidate a backstage pass to other candidates’ IP if you think you’re going to be running for a role in competition with them, can you?” Riewoldt said.
7NEWS sports reporter Tom Morris said he believed Simpson would be — if decided to go for it — simply trying to convince the club he was the man, not trying to outdo other candidates.
However, Cleary said: “You’ve got to put yourself in the shoes of a Corey Enright or a Jaymie Graham who presented to Adam Simpson in that process. Do they feel comfortable going into a North Melbourne process if Adam Simpson is part of that?”
Riewoldt said Simpson was qualified enough to win the job independent of what he learnt from any other prospective coach.
“I’m just saying the optics are bad. And I wonder if he had his time again, if he knew the North Melbourne job was going to become available when it did — and let’s be honest, there was a chance — …. whether he would sit on that Carlton coaching panel again.”
Simpson said in the immediate aftermath of Clarkson’s bombshell sacking the he hadn’t given coaching the club a lot of thought.
“I played 300 games at North Melbourne so there is always the love of the club and the people there so that’s definitely real, but I was loyal to West Coast at the time. It’s a little bit different this time.” Simpson said.
Simpson coached West Coast from 2014 to 2024, and took them to a famous grand final victory in 2018.
The trade period starts on October 5, but the Roos are adamant they won’t be rushing the process simply to have someone in place for the start of the player movement period.
North Melbourne are in desperate need of key defenders and are circling Essendon’s Jordan Ridley.
Ridley has already had a medical at North, but he does have three years remaining on his Essendon contract.
