Ex-Geelong forward Cam Mooney says his former AFL coach Mark Thompson would feel obligated to step in and take over at Essendon for the 2014 season.
“He left Geelong (after the 2010 season) and he’s gone there with James Hird to guide him through for three or four years, whatever his contract was,” Mooney told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 program on Thursday night.
“After everything that’s happened this year, he would feel a lot of responsibility to make sure this club bounces back over the next 12 months.”
Following this week’s announcement that Essendon senior coach Hird will serve a 12-month ban for his part in the club’s supplements scandal, Hird has declared his assistant coach Thompson as the man most likely to fill the role until August 25, 2014.
Thompson has been fined $30,000 for his role in last year’s supplements scandal.
“We’d all like to see Mark Thompson do it. He’s the obvious choice,” Hird said on Wednesday.
Mooney, who played in Geelong’s 2007 and 2009 premiership sides under Thompson, says a 12-month stint as senior coach would be perfect for Thompson at Windy Hill.
“Any longer than that, I don’t think he’d want to do it,” Mooney said.
“It’s all the other stuff that goes, not just coaching, it’s all the commitments outside coaching that probably burnt `Bomber’ (Thompson) out a little bit.
“But for 12 months I think he can do it.”
Mooney says Thompson or fellow assistant coach Simon Goodwin, who will coach the Bombers in their last-round clash against Richmond on Saturday night, should be the first candidates considered.
“It has to come from somebody in the club anyway,” Mooney said.
“You can’t bring a guy in who doesn’t know the game plan, doesn’t know the direction the club wants to go and doesn’t know the players.
“It’s just a waste of time for one year.
“So it’s got to be `Bomber’, Goodwin. Whoever it is, it has to come from insiders.”