ESSENDON has a preference for an experienced coach, but will not allow the next coach the same unfettered control of the football department as Kevin Sheedy.

Having confirmed its momentous decision to remove the iconic Sheedy yesterday, the Essendon hierarchy will employ an external consultant to assist it in finding someone to fill those massive shoes.

While the Essendon board has not yet formally broached the topic of his replacement — and made the decision without a specific replacement in mind — the hierarchy is confident of attracting a high-calibre coach and will soon begin the task of assessing candidates.

Former captains Neale Daniher and Mark Thompson will obviously be considered, but the Bombers are understood to be open-minded on the question of a new coach, acknowledging yesterday that the presence of three other clubs in the marketplace had hastened their decision to move on Sheedy. Experience is preferred but not necessarily essential, at this stage.

"We have to get in the game as far as the appointment of a new coach is concerned," Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson said.

"Good coaches don't grow on trees, and we have to be in the game to find one. It would be remiss of this club … to make a decision to hold that off until the end of the year, if it causes us to miss out."

Thompson, whose team sits atop the ladder and is the clear premiership favourite, is yet to re-sign with Geelong but the Cats yesterday reiterated that they — and Thompson — would stick to their plan of leaving contract talks on hold until season's end and that the vacancy created at Windy Hill would not shift their position.

"Our position is that our position has not changed on what's previously been said: both parties are happy to leave it until the end of the year and that is how it remains," a Geelong spokesman said.

Thompson's manager, Michael Quinlan, was equally comfortable with the arrangement: "It's big news what's happened at Essendon, but it's not really relevant to Geelong."

The Essendon decision-makers are understood to be mindful that the person who replaces Sheedy will need to be made of stern stuff, with the stature to withstand the immense scrutiny and pressures of the job and the inevitable comparisons with the man who transformed the club into one of the nation's most powerful.

As chief executive Peter Jackson hinted, and sources later confirmed, Essendon's next coach will not exercise the same level of control over staff appointments as Sheedy, with the club mindful that its decision to make Sheedy head of the football department a decade ago had not yielded results in the past three to five years.

Jackson conceded there would be significant changes in the Essendon football department, but said the word "overhaul" was not appropriate and that the club would retain a say in key appointments.

Richmond yesterday was quick to hose down the long-held assumption of the prodigal son Sheedy returning to Punt Rd.

"There is no interest from the Richmond Football Club in getting Kevin back in a football capacity in the foreseeable future," Richmond president Gary March said.

"We have already set our path and made our changes and put appropriate people into positions, there is not an appropriate position available for Kevin."

But March said the Tigers, like the AFL, would be interested in hiring Sheedy for an ambassadorial role.

Fremantle also ruled out pursuing Sheedy as a coach to replace Chris Connolly, with Sheedy having jested earlier about serving as assistant "under Mark Harvey".

The seismic shift in the coaching landscape over the past week, however, has not altered the determination of not only the Cats, but the Kangaroos — the sides occupying first and second on the ladder — to advance negotiations with their coaches who both come out of contract at season's end.

Geelong's view was shared by Kangaroos chairman Graham Duff, who said the club would not be bullied into a new contract because other clubs had sacked their coaches.

"When people ask me was it a good strategy to leave it until the end of the year so the coach could concentrate on coaching? I simply say look at the scoreboard," Duff said.

"There is no change in the position of the North Melbourne Football Club.

"There would have been no change in position had we lost ten games, we still would have been leaving it until the end of the year."