PAUL Roos says now that he’s confirmed he will remain Melbourne coach until the end of 2016 the club has several options in appointing his successor.

Roos said the fact that he was taking up the option to coach the Demons for a third season meant that the club can look to several alternatives for the senior coaching position from 2017 and beyond.  

“For people that are interested, it just clears things up for them,” he told Roos’ Views.

“It’s going to be a two-year apprenticeship, if we can get someone sorted out [to come in] at the end of the year.

“It probably also gives us some breathing space too … if you can’t find the right person or someone might be out of contract at the end of next year – it gives us 12 months.

“It solidifies from a club point of view, knowing what we’re doing and it also makes it a little bit simpler from a succession point of view that there are no grey areas now. So it works well for those things as well.”

Roos said ideally his successor would have two seasons at the Demons from 2015-16, before taking over in 2017.

“Depending on who it is, ideally, if we found a really good candidate, it’d be great to bring them into the footy club to have a two-year apprenticeship and get a real look at the team and how they go about it, so that’s probably the ideal model,” he said.

“At the moment, we’re just out there having real informal chats to people – we’re just enquiring. From our point of view, [we’re saying:] ‘are you interested from a coaching point of view?’

“The priority would be to get the person in place as soon as possible. The ultimate priorities are the footy club and to make sure we get the right person for the job.”