Nathan Buckley has ruled out making an early start to his AFL coaching career at Collingwood following the departure of Magpies assistant coach Brad Scott to North Melbourne.

Scott's appointment on Monday as North's coach for 2010 meant his immediate exit from the Magpies, who have their eyes on going deep into this year's finals.

Buckley will return to his old club next year as an assistant coach under Mick Malthouse, but said the Magpies did not need his services in 2009 as Malthouse could ably call on current assistants Mark Neeld, Paul Hudson, Blake Caracella and Gavin Brown.

"If I was at the club now and had been part of the club, I'd be recommending that the current coaches can fill the void that Brad has left," Buckley said on Tuesday.

"There's a lot of leadership in the midfield - in the playing group - that I reckon will be able to cover that as well."

Buckley has three media contracts to honour in 2009 before he joins the Magpies for two seasons as an assistant coach.

He will succeed Malthouse as senior coach in 2012.

Collingwood clearly thought Scott continuing at the Magpies was untenable given his appointment at North.

But Geelong share a different view if assistant coach Ken Hinkley is appointed Richmond's next senior coach.

Hinkley is one of four candidates in the running to be appointed the Tigers' next coach, but Cats coach mark Thompson said his assistant position was guaranteed for the remainder of this season.

"If Kenny was lucky enough to get the job we'd be very, very happy for him to stay here (for the rest of the season)," Thompson said.

"We'd want him to stay here and finish off what's he's done.

"He's a big part of what we do here and if he was to leave it would leave a massive hole and we don't want that.

"We want our team working as a group for as long as we last."

Hinkley, Richmond caretaker Jade Rawlings, Hawthorn assistant Damien Hardwick and Essendon assistant Alan Richardson are those in the running to land the Richmond job, which could be decided as early as this week.

Meanwhile, North Melbourne captain Brent Harvey said he and his teammates did not help caretaker Darren Crocker in his bid to pip Scott and Hardwick for the full-time Kangaroos job.

The Kangaroos have won just one, drawn one and lost six of the games under Crocker, who was appointed caretaker after Dean Laidley quit mid-season.

"It's disappointing for Crock, he put his name up and wanted to coach the team," Harvey said.

"We probably didn't help him with the win-loss ratio when he took over halfway through the year."

Crocker will coach North in their last two games, against St Kilda and Port Adelaide.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP