Retired four-time AFL premiership coach Leigh Matthews has stamped on speculation he might make a return to the coaching box.

Matthews laughed off a report suggesting he could be a candidate for the vacant Richmond or North Melbourne jobs for 2010, saying he was about as likely a candidate as Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting.

The three-time Brisbane premiership mentor, who also led Collingwood to their drought-breaking 1990 flag, said while he might accept a phone call from the Tigers or Kangaroos, nothing should be read into that.

"We shouldn't mess around with this," Matthews told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

"The fact is some days I'm 100 per cent not interested and other days I'm only 99 per cent not interested.

"That's about where it stands, no-one should even be thinking of me as a potential coach."

He said a Herald-Sun report suggesting his willingness to talk to a club in the hunt for a coach indicated some desire to resume a senior position was the equivalent of "taking two and two and adding them up to make 55".

"The chances of me coaching next year are the same as they were last week, which is the same as Ricky Ponting, which is about 500-1," Matthews said.

"If someone rang me you might talk to them, but you certainly wouldn't be talking to them on the basis that you're intending to do it.

"It's only because sometimes you're polite, if someone asks for half an hour of your time you're quite happy to do it."

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