Former Sydney, Hawthorn and Collingwood star Tom Mitchell has backed Scott Pendlebury as a potential immediate transition to senior coaching, calling the Collingwood champion the one player who could make the leap. The suggestion follows Brad Johnson's claim that Essendon should consider Pendlebury for their vacant coaching role.
Pendlebury's Coaching Potential
Mitchell, speaking on Channel 7's The Agenda Setters, said Pendlebury would be a senior coach one day and could handle the step up. "If anyone could do it, Pendles could do it," Mitchell said. "It's just whether he wants to go explore a different program when the coaching time does come. Straight into it might be a little bit ambitious but if anyone could do it, he could do it."
Pendlebury, who turns 39 next year, is expected to play on for another season. 7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary noted that Pendlebury could be as ready as James Hird was when he first coached Essendon. Hird was 38 when he coached his first match, the same age Pendlebury is now.
Essendon's Coaching Race
The Bombers have shortlisted James Hird, Mark McVeigh, Jaymie Graham, and Murray Davis for final interviews. 7NEWS sports reporter Tom Morris rates McVeigh as the current frontrunner at 43 per cent, followed by Hird at 34 per cent, Graham at 17 per cent, and Davis at 5 per cent.
Morris gave Pendlebury a 1 per cent chance as a nod to Johnson's suggestion. "That is just showing that Brad Johnson knows what he's talking about," Morris said.
Interim coach Dean Solomon, who has one win from 10 games as caretaker, says the next coach's Essendon background should be irrelevant. "You have just got to be the right person at the right time for the right job," Solomon said. "Whether that is a person who has played for this football club or hasn't played, I think it's irrelevant, I really do."
