Aspiring AFL coach Neale Daniher maintains he will not "muscle in" on any former colleagues despite this week shaping as an important one for several men wanting to coach next year.

Daniher insisted he would coach again and said he had missed the caper in the three weeks since standing down from the Melbourne post.

But he stressed he would do the right thing by his former colleagues by waiting until positions became vacant before pushing his own case, despite Essendon's Kevin Sheedy and Carlton's Denis Pagan facing renewed pressure to keep their jobs.

Sheedy's future is expected to be up for discussion at an Essendon board meeting this week, as the Bombers hierarchy must decide whether to offer the veteran another contract to continue beyond this season - his 27th - or change the guard.

Pagan's position will also come under renewed scrutiny after his side suffered a 117-point thrashing at the hands of the Brisbane Lions, the side immediately above the Blues on the ladder, at the Gabba.

Pagan is contracted for 2008, but his position will be reviewed by the Blues at the end of this season regardless, and massive defeats will not help his cause.

In what has already been a significant season on the coaching landscape, with two changes and possibly more to come, Daniher was confident he would coach again, although he reiterated he would not undermine a contracted coach.

"It's just a case of when and where," Daniher told Channel Nine's The Sunday Footy Show.

"I'll coach again, but I'm just sitting back having a bit of a look at how clubs go about things.

"I'm very interested in 15 jobs, but you've got to do it the right way.

"I am still on the (AFL) Coaches Association (executive) and I'm not going to muscle in on anyone."

Daniher said his policy extended to approaching Fremantle, who appointed Mark Harvey as caretaker coach after Chris Connolly quit last week.

"Only a caretaker coach? Nah, it doesn't work like that," Daniher said.

"Mark Harvey's coaching and he's doing a very good job."

Harvey coached Fremantle to a first-up victory on Saturday over Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, and the Dockers are still a chance, albeit remote, to play finals.

Sheedy's Bombers also face an uphill battle to reach the finals, as Saturday's loss to Collingwood left them outside the eight with several tough games to come.

Carlton's shellacking to the Lions was the sixth defeat of 100 points for the Blues in Pagan's reign, compared to just five the club suffered in over a century before 2003.

It would be ironic if a big defeat was the death knell for Pagan, as he got his start in senior coaching, at the Kangaroos in 1993, when his predecessor Wayne Schimmelbusch was sacked after a triple-figure defeat during pre-season.

The futures of Sheedy and Pagan will have further say on the coaching merry-go-round given there are several highly-credentialled candidates waiting in the wings.

Daniher has been linked with both the Fremantle job given he was once an assistant coach there and Essendon, where he played, while Connolly is a former Melbourne player and could vie for the job with Demons caretaker Mark Riley.

Other candidates for jobs include assistant coaches Chris Bond (Western Bulldogs), Peter Sumich (West Coast), Guy McKenna (Collingwood) and John Longmire (Sydney), while Brisbane Lions legend Michael Voss is also chasing a coaching job.

The Kangaroos' Dean Laidley and Geelong's Mark Thompson are the other coaches out of contract at the end of the season, although both are in good positions to negotiate given the good performances of their sides three quarters into the season.

Thompson's Cats atop the ladder after round 16, while Laidley has coached the second-placed Roos to 11 wins from their past 13 games after starting the season with three straight losses.

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