Disgruntled West Coast fans might disagree, but Paul Roos has backed John Worsfold to keep coaching the AFL strugglers.

Roos is adamant he will not coach at West Coast or anywhere else once he finishes his successful nine-year reign at Sydney at the end of this season.

He will hand over to assistant John Longmire and there has inevitably been speculation about other clubs trying to entice Roos with massive offers.

But Roos wants to stay at the Swans in another role.

"I've been really clear on what I want to do, which is not coach anywhere else," Roos said on Wednesday.

"I'm hoping to stay at Sydney and have a role here."

Roos and Worsfold were the AFL's coaching stars through the middle of last decade, when the Swans beat the Eagles in the 2005 grand final and the Eagles reversed the result a year later.

Sydney and West have since had to rebuild, but their fortunes have been dramatically different this season.

The Swans heavily recruited experienced players and are in the top eight.

West Coast were expected to improve this season, but only have three wins.

The disastrous 49-point loss on Sunday to bottom side Richmond meant the jungle drums are beating louder about Worsfold's future, leading to a media report this week that Eagles powerbrokers would put the feelers out to Roos.

But the Sydney coach said the Eagles already had a good coach.

"He's clearly the right guy to coach that football club," Roos said.

"He's got an outstanding record, that's probably the thing that surprises you a little bit - how quick they are to jump on guys (in Perth)."

"They had success over a five or six-year period, the same as we did, they've now gone down a rebuilding path with young players."

"They've got some really talented kids but with talented kids, you've got to suffer a little bit of pain and you've got to suffer some losses."

"There's no right or wrong but I think with John, clearly there's been just younger drafting and that's going to bear fruit in the next two or three years."

Meanwhile, Essendon remain unsure how long former Hawthorn forward Mark Williams will be sidelined with a heel injury.

Williams has not played senior football since the opening four rounds of the season and did not play last weekend in the VFL.

"It's one of those (injuries) that have been nagging him for a little while and it has probably gotten worse so we gave him the weekend off last weekend," Essendon football operations manager Paul Hamilton said on the club website.

"He hasn't done much training this week so he is in some doubt and we have sent him off to have some MRIs and will know more in the next few days."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP