Eddie McGuire suggested now should be the time the Swans set up a succession plan between coach John Longmire and Dean Cox.
Cox re-signed as an assistant coach with the Swans in July, turning down the vacant West Coast Eagles job, that was on Monday filled by Andrew McQualter.
Former Collingwood chief McGuire implemented one between Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley, and there is also a handshake agreement in place at Port Adelaide between incumbent Ken Hinkley and his assistant Josh Carr.
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Longmire will begin his 15th campaign at the helm of the Swans after he, too, took over in 2011 from Paul Roos in a succession plan.
As the dust settles on the Swans’ 60-point grand final flogging on Saturday, McGuire said there are “questions to be answered” by the Swans hierarchy.
John Longmire after full-time. Getty
There is some suggestion Longmire is considering his future. He has one year remaining on his contract, and will more than likely make a decision before the start of the season.
Although the Malthouse-Buckley succession plan worked out publicly, there was animosity between the two behind the scenes.
“I wanted to make the move before we started to dip down, while we still had some – pardon the pun – horsepower,” McGuire said on Nine’s Eddie and Jimmy podcast.
“As it turned out, their personalities didn’t line up to do that despite all the best plans.
“So do you look at that (a succession plan)? Or do you go: ‘No, (Longmire) is the best coach we’ve got, in you go again’.”
McGuire said Longmire is a “tremendous manager of players”, and suggested he disagreed with criticism of his grand final decisions.
The Swans have played five premiership deciders under Longmire but won just one.
“At five to two (1.55pm on Saturday) he’s regarded as one of the best coaches going around, and then at five o’clock (after the grand final) you’re a dud?” McGuire said.
“He’s got one (premiership), but you’ve got to make the eight, and there’s a lot of things that go into getting to a grand final.”
Podcast oo-host Jimmy Bartel responded that history remembers premierships, not coaches that consistently got their teams to September.
“Thirty years from now we don’t remember ‘oh, geez that coach was good because he made the eight’,” he said.
“Premierships are the currency.”