ON THE night that Kevin Sheedy racked up his record 879th game of league football a fortnight ago, Rodney Eade was delighted to be in the opposing coach's box at Telstra Dome.

Granted, it was mainly because the Bulldogs won by 33 points, but Eade regards Sheedy as "a legend of the game" and said yesterday he would not be surprised to confront the old master again next season.

"I reckon he will (coach next year)," Eade said. "I reckon he'll get a job."

He also believes it will be a traditional senior coaching position, not in a mentoring or figurehead role for a young or inexperienced coach such as former Brisbane Lions captain Michael Voss.

Eade believes the mentoring concept can work, providing whoever is involved is prepared to "park their egos", but said he believed Sheedy was not ready for such a role yet.

"I don't think so, not now," Eade said. "I think he's still got a lot to offer as a coach in his own right. I could see Kevin doing that in four or five years' time, but for a person to do that, there'd have to be no desire to be the main man again. And I think Kevin would still have the burning desire to coach."

Eade dismissed two concerns that had been raised against Sheedy coaching on elsewhere next season: his age (59), and the fact that he has experienced only the Windy Hill environs for the past 27 years. "Kevin's greatest quality has been his ability to change. To be able to change direction a lot of times," Eade said.

As for the age issue: "You look at (recently departed Socceroos coach) Guus Hiddink. He's supposed to be the guru, the legend, and he's 62 or something. Same with (Manchester United manager) Alex Ferguson.

"I think you can be young at 60 and old at 40. It's always your state of mind, your enthusiasm and your want and will. But also then you need to make sure that you don't get stuck in what it was like 10 years ago, or you don't look to improve, or you don't look to new ways."

Eade said some critics had wondered whether Sheedy could relate to the new breed of footballers, from 'generation Y', but "you don't have to pander to generation Y. Either they do or they don't want to get on board, and your values are set by your leaders, and they'll want to fall into line because they want direction.

"Management is a nice buzzword for making everything warm and fuzzy, but sometimes you need leadership to say, 'These are the rules', and the players want to do it."

With four coaching positions now available, Eade, who is contracted until the end of 2009, offered a view on two of the likely candidates.

He said one of his assistants at Whitten Oval, Chris Bond, "ticks all the boxes" needed to be a senior coach.

"He's coached his own team (Bond guided Werribee to the VFL finals in 2002) and a lot of AFL assistant coaches haven't done that."

Eade suggested Voss would find it more difficult, but "there's always a rider — he might be the exception".

"(Voss) has been a great leader and he's got all the attributes," Eade said.