LEIGH MATTHEWS was sitting in his Sydney hotel room three days ago watching Geelong demolish the West Coast Eagles when it occurred to him that he would be coaching Brisbane that night for the last time.

He kept football's most recent best-kept secret to himself until around midnight when, after an inglorious conclusion to a majestic decade, he returned to the hotel and called his wife, Deb, to tell her he had reached the decision which had been eating away at him for much of the season.

Matthews chuckled last night to The Age that the SCG had not always been a happy hunting ground for him.

It was there that he also oversaw his last game as Collingwood coach, but the geographic placement of the legendary football figure's swansong was where the similarities ended.

"One of my regrets at Collingwood was that I never had a chance to speak to the playing group as a whole or individually," said Matthews last night.

"I did that this morning and I called a couple of my senior players on Sunday night out of respect just to let them know."

Those players were Jonathan Brown and Simon Black. Already Matthews had told his longtime sidekick and football manager Graeme Allan — who interestingly outlasted him at Collingwood also — and close friend and president Tony Kelly while the trio watched Brisbane's reserves team at Coorparoo on Sunday.

Allan had on Saturday morning re-signed Brown to a long-term deal which involved incentives stretching the contract to five years should Brown's body hold up, but a guaranteed three years if not. Two days later, Brown was contemplating the thought of playing out his career under his three-time premiership captain Michael Voss.

"The coaching fashion at the moment is for 40-year-old coaches," said Matthews, not a little disparagingly. Last night he said he had no knowledge of his replacement and would not endorse Voss or anyone for that matter.

"That's the fashion. But the truth is that coaching at 55 is no different to coaching at 45. For me though I just knew my time here had come.

"If we didn't have success here next year there just would have been enormous pressure on everybody,but now there's a good bounce for them — a fresh start."

President Kelly called Voss early on Monday and the latter, having turned down three senior coaching roles in 13 months, felt his life lurch in front of him. He is the preferred candidate to replace Matthews and spent much of yesterday seeking counsel from close advisers and contemplating then thought of taking on the role which seemed destined to him a year early.

Two weeks ago, Voss met John Worsfold and his team at West Coast, inspected houses in Perth with his young family and chose schools for his children. He will meet Kelly today and reach a decision before the end of the week. The choice of Voss was all but ratified by the Lions board last night.

Unlike many current coaches, Matthews never needed to play politics. He was an official AFL legend even before he travelled to Brisbane at the end of 1998 to place its football club on the map. Coaching for him was less about clever tactics and manoeuvres than good management and powerful command but nonetheless Matthews read the political writing on the wall better than anyone.

It wasn't so much that he believed in the rumoured rifts with his players and notably his champion out-of-contract captain Jonathan Brown, but the fact that the rumours existed at all that bothered him. If at Collingwood he stayed a year too long, at Brisbane, Matthews was determined to risk an early departure.

"Still I never thought that this team would do what this team did and for a non-Melbourne team to do it with all the obstacles they had and get there three years in a row … they were never clearly ahead of the rest of they never went into September clear favourites like Geelong, but when they had to do it in September they did."

Matthews became a grandfather for the first time the month he moved to Brisbane. He thought at the time he would like to last until that grandchild — Amber — started school as a five-year-old. Instead she will soon turn 10.

"I'm a Melbourne boy and it was just a gigantic adventure for me to leave Melbourne in my mid-40s and move to Queensland," he said. "I'm not sure what I'll do now, reaching this decision has been the main issue over the past few days.

"I feel like I've been addicted to it for most of my life." Matthews added he would remain at the club over the coming days to seek closure with his players.

"I've been addicted to the competitive nature of this game, and now it's time to break the addiction and find something else I suppose."