MELBOURNE has not developed set criteria to determine who should succeed Paul Roos as senior coach when his contract expires.

However, Roos says the successful candidate must understand the club's direction so he can build upon the foundation being set now.

As speculation mounts as to who might succeed Roos, the coach said the club was not that far advanced in developing a list of potential candidates.

And, in any event, Roos said Melbourne would not be approaching assistant coaches working at other clubs to determine their suitability and interest until the end of the year.

"There is a process we will go through," Roos said.

"I don't even know if [there is a] first list. I've seen a list but I don't know how big that list was. [It's] very, very early stages but as you would imagine [it's] round nine in the season - you can't really talk to assistant coaches until the end of the year."

The club could begin talking to potential candidates who are not working at other clubs, such as former Geelong skipper Cameron Ling, who indicated in one of his media roles on the weekend he was deciding whether or not to enter coaching as an assistant coach next year.

They could also assess internal candidates as the year unfolded.

The AFL Coaches Association developed a convention for clubs to follow when making coaching appointments, which Melbourne intends to honour.

Roos said the club is keeping an open mind on the possibilities at this stage.

"If you said, 'what is your criteria?' we haven't got a sheet that says they have to be this, they have to be that, or whatever," Roos said. "What they have to do is understand the direction of the footy club."

He said the speculation was not a distraction, and the players and coaching staff were only focused on preparing for each game.

Roos has indicated he would be open to staying on at the club beyond his time as senior coach, but what such a role might look like was nowhere near being established.

He said it might be predicated on who was appointed to be his successor, but his decision on whether or not to exercise his option to coach for three years would not be dependent on the person who won the job as senior assistant. 

Roos said few clubs knew who their coach would be at the end of each two or three-year period however he understood the reason why people are interested in Melbourne's situation.

"Most coaches only have two or three year contracts. No-one knows who is going to coach beyond [that]…what we're trying to put in place is certainty," Roos said.

Roos also indicated James Frawley is likely to return from injury and will replace the suspended Chris Dawes.