They're cut from a different cloth but Guy McKenna believes fellow inaugural expansion club coach Kevin Sheedy will be a perfect fit for Western Sydney.

McKenna, to guide Gold Coast into the AFL in 2011, wasn't at the least surprised the 61-year-old former Essendon mentor was appointed to lead their rival club-in-waiting.

"I think he'll be fantastic," the 40-year-old said.

"His coaching record speaks for itself and for someone to go in and coach young kids from the ground floor what's needed and what's expected and what's to be achieved there's no one better than Kevin Sheedy.

"And typical Sheeds he's done the AFL ambassador role, he's gone to all the clubs and pinched all the good strengths of all those clubs and harnessed all that.

"He's good Sheeds," McKenna added with a smile.

While the Coast have chosen a super-fit younger man with no senior head coaching experience, Western Sydney have opted for the highly-popular 27-season guru with marketing skills to match.

But McKenna, a long-time assistant under Mick Malthouse, has little doubt Sheedy can be as astute and as affective as ever.

"The younger coaches are more hands on but I think the older boys do it quite well," said the former West Coast skipper, who will oversee league star Karmichael Hunt's transition to AFL.

"They get the assistants around them like Western Sydney with Alan McConnell ... he's got a young head working with young kids and that's Kevin Sheedy's first port of call.

"And Mick was the same at Collingwood.

"They're still tacticians, and still as smart. Leaving Mick, he was probably coaching better in my fifth year than he was in my first year when I got to Collingwood."

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