NEIL Craig says the complexities of being an AFL senior coach have gone to another level since he last guided Adelaide in the top job in 2011.

Craig, speaking at AAMI Park on Friday, said the role had changed significantly, just as playing the game continued to evolve. But he said his thirst for the Melbourne coaching gig for 2014 and beyond was still far from clear.

“My position hasn’t changed on that and it won’t change until the club decides on the type of coach they’re looking for, because it would only be a waste of my time and energy to go any further than that,” he said.

“It may be that the skill set I have is appropriate to talk and it may be that the skill set I have is not appropriate and so it would be a very short conversation.

“I haven’t given that any thought at all. What I do know at the moment is my commitment was for the 11 weeks for as hard as I possibly could. I intend to be absolutely true to my word to that.”

Craig said no coach would bring the same attributes to the role and indicated other potential experienced candidates such as Rodney Eade and Dean Laidley would offer something different.

“If you had Rodney Eade, Dean Laidley and myself sitting up here on the table, we’d all have different skill sets and different ways of doing things and different philosophies. That’s what the club’s got to consider – not just a matter of experience. They’ll get a picture and a blueprint of what they’ll want,” he said.

“What I do know is that whoever gets the job is going to be involved in managing enormous complexity, because that’s the nature of the job.

“I’ve coached for seven years at AFL level, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got the skill set that the club’s looking for.”

Craig said he hadn’t been given any timeline on when Melbourne will appoint its coach for 2014 and beyond.

“There’s always a sense of urgency, because of the way the industry is now – it doesn’t stop, because there’s planning, the Draft Camp and list management discussions, which ideally the senior coach should be a part of,” he said.

“So there is a sense of urgency, but not at the expense, I would think, of getting the right person.

“Time pressures all of us … in this situation, if the club falls in to being pressured by time, they could make an error and the job’s too important to be pressured by time – it’s really important to get it right.”

Meanwhile, Craig said he would consider approaching outgoing Collingwood director of football Geoff Walsh for Melbourne’s general manager of football operations position if he was in charge.

“If that was part of my responsibilities to be involved in that, I’d probably give it some thought, but it’s not,” he said.

“With all sincerity, doing this job in the chair that I’m sitting in at the moment – I’ve got enough to do without worrying who’s available for other positions in the footy club. I mean that sincerely.

“Geoff’s obviously highly experienced, so probably for Geoff, it’ll be what he wants to do to start with.”