Adelaide's hunt for their next AFL coach has greater urgency now Melbourne have entered the race for a coach, Crows chief executive Steven Trigg says.

But Trigg said the Crows would not be rushed because the Demons were in the same market.

"I don't know that it makes it harder, but it does create a sense of urgency - not to be rushed, but it does create a slightly greater sense of urgency," Trigg told reporters on Friday.

"We're pretty close to being able to say 'this is the way we are able to go about it', but please understand, you would expect us to have already been on the job."

Trigg refused to confirm or deny the Crows had approached Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson, whose contract with the Hawks expires at season's end.

"The problem with saying yes or no is that then you start to engage debate about an individual and I just can't do it," he said.

"Because the next one will be 'have you made an offer to (Western Bulldogs coach Rodney) Eade?'.

"It just becomes a circus so I can't engage in the names ... about whether we have, haven't, would or wouldn't."

The Crows would be secretive in their search for a replacement for Neil Craig, who quit last week.

"I don't know how to ... stop the speculation," Trigg said.

"We just can't participate in it because it's not right to play it out in public in terms of the individual.

"We need to play some cards really close to the chest.

"We're happy to be very transparent in the process ... but as to who we're going to target and how we go about it, there is some commercial in confidence with that."

Trigg hoped Adelaide would announce a new coach before the end of September's finals series.

"If that level of urgency with which we're going to attach to it plays out, I'd have thought somewhere early to mid-September we'd be getting a clearer picture," he said.

"But it might not be until later in September before we nail it down."

Trigg said there was a case for targeting a "senior experienced successful AFL coach" but also an argument for appointing a current assistant coach.

"What I don't want to do is back us into a corner either way, because I think both models have an opportunity to work with us," he said.

Trigg also endorsed the abilities of caretaker coach Mark Bickley, who has not decided whether to apply for the permanent head coach position.

"I have seen him grow quickly into and settle to it really well," he said.

"He has got a lot of building blocks there that would make him a really really good coach but there is a bit to be played out there, so we will just see how the next four or five weeks go."

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