The club that spawned all the top AFL coaching candidates has itself joined the race to secure one of them for 2005 after Hawthorn axed incumbent coach Peter Schwab.

The Hawks join Adelaide and Richmond in searching for a new coach, with the pressure to beat those clubs to the signature of a successor undoubtedly a factor in the surprise move.

While few expected Schwab to survive a dire season in which the club has won just two of 16 games, there was no inkling the Hawks would move so soon to dismiss Schwab.

Schwab, contracted to the end of 2005, was told of the decision after club president Ian Dicker and director Dermott Brereton informed him the club was preparing for an overhaul of the entire coaching and playing staff.

Schwab, whose high point came when he got the Hawks within nine points of a grand final appearance in 2001 and who publicly announced the club would win the premiership this year, will see out the remaining six games.

The leading candidates to succeed Schwab are all Hawthorn premiership players: Terry Wallace, Rodney Eade and Gary Ayres.

All have coached clubs to consistent finals appearances since leaving Hawthorn, with Wallace having stood out of coaching since being overlooked at the eleventh hour as replacement for Eade at Sydney, while Ayres was sacked by Adelaide this year.

While Ayres was considered third choice behind the other pair for the jobs at Adelaide and Richmond, his chances of getting the Hawthorn job were considered stronger given his strong friendship with Brereton.

Hawthorn's five-man coaching sub-committee - including Dicker, Brereton and former goalkicking great/current director Jason Dunstall - will meet on Friday to begin the process of finding a new coach.

It was anticipated the decision would be made before the end of the season, with much hinging on Adelaide's wait to determine whether current interim coach Neil Craig had done enough to get the full-time job.

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