Sydney coach Paul Roos is confident the Swans' coaching coordinator John Longmire will stay with the club, even though he is favourite for the vacant North Melbourne position.

After Nathan Buckley rejected the Kangaroos in favour of Collingwood, former North hero Longmire was installed as the bookies' favourite for the job.

Longmire missed out on the St Kilda coaching spot to another former Sydney assistant Ross Lyon at the end of 2006.

Roos made it clear Longmire would have his blessing if he did get offered and accepted the Kangaroos' post and believed he was "absolutely" ready to be a head coach.

"I think he (Longmire) is a very valuable member of the Swans and at this stage I'm confident he will stay, if that changes we will obviously deal with that at the time," Roos told reporters before training on Tuesday.

"I really haven't sat down with John and talked through the North Melbourne position with him.

"He's very loyal and I'm sure his focus is on the next five weeks and the Sydney Swans footy club, not the North Melbourne footy club.

"We didn't stand in the way of Rossy (Lyon) going to St Kilda, so I think it's good when you see your assistant coaches going to other clubs if they haven't got the opportunity at your club.

"So I would be supportive, but I don't know whether John wants to do it and obviously the Kangaroos need to make a decision as well."

Roos said Sydney had no coaching succession plan along the lines of the Mick Malthouse-Nathan Buckley arrangement Collingwood announced on Tuesday, but described the Magpies' decision as "the way of the future".

"It doesn't surprise me. Teams are now looking to beef up assistant coaching roles and the senior coaching role is such a big role now, they are starting to look at transition periods and succession plans," Roos said.

"In terms of Mick's position, I don't think it's undermined at all. I think it strengthens Mick's position having Nathan there.

"I think the days of looking over your shoulder and worrying about assistant coaches are finished."

Roos revealed Sydney had discussed and dealt with the on-field spat between Adam Goodes and Rhyce Shaw, which occurred during last Sunday's clash with Melbourne at Manuka Oval.

The two players remonstrated with each other after Shaw was penalised for carrying the ball too far and didn't deliver it to Goodes in the forward line.

Roos said it was probably the wrong forum for his players to be so demonstrative but he didn't have a problem with their actions.

"You can look at it from two ways. You can look at it from the point of view that publicly it doesn't look great," Roos said.

"But I think the other point is it still gives you an idea of where our players are at. They are actually not going to accept mediocrity and they are going to challenge each other sometimes."

Roos said Amon Buchanan was in doubt for Saturday's SCG clash with unbeaten ladder-leader St Kilda after he was a late withdrawal from the Demons' clash.

Midfielder Dan Hannebery will keep his place in the senior side pending his schoolwork commitments.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP