MICHAEL Voss says the prospect of him coaching a Gold Coast-based AFL club has appeal but is a long way off happening.
Voss, Brisbane captain in four grand finals, three of them winning ones, was a hot favourite to land a coaching position at either Carlton or Essendon this year before he announced he was withdrawing from contention.
Now, with the Kangaroos rejecting a move to the Gold Coast and deciding to revert to the North Melbourne name and remain at Arden Street, the AFL has said it is prepared to grant a 17th licence for a new team in south-east Queensland.
Voss would be an obvious candidate for such a club and he admitted yesterday that the thought of being involved in building a new club from scratch had "appeal."
He had had no discussions along such lines, however, and was happy with his decision to step back from immediate coaching ambitions.
"I'm done trying to speculate when the time to coach is, and where it's going to be, and whether I'm going to do it at all," Voss said.
He said he had not abandoned his ambition to coach, but equally was not closing himself off to other opportunities .
While an AFL-club on the Gold Coast had appeal, it was not a critical factor in any future decision. If he decided again to put his name forward as a coach, he would go where the job was available.
"It's nice to have something in your backyard, but it's not a determining factor in whether I'd coach or not," said Voss.
"It wouldn't bother me whether I moved to the other side of the country, to be honest. There's 16 jobs, and if there's a 17th team there's 17."
Even under the AFL timetable, any 17th team would not be playing before 2011.
Voss said a lot of decisions would be made before any thought was given to a coach, and it was premature to even think about the possibility now. "One thing I've learned over last 12 months is never to predict what's going to happen in next 12."
Voss began his career with Brisbane when the club was nicknamed the Bears, was based at Carrara and struggling to survive before the move to the Gabba. He said that if anyone had told him then that 15 years later an AFL team on the Gold Coast would again be a possibility he would have said they were mad.
Brisbane Lions chief executive Michael Bowers said his club did not have a view on a 17th team on the Gold Coast because, until now, the option had been for a club to relocate.
"Our view was that if it's a 16th relocated team, 'bring it on'," said Bowers.
"A 17th team, our view is different on that. We don't know what it really means; we haven't touched it, or felt it or understood what it is; any of the conditions that would apply to it; how much would a 17th licence be worth to the competition."
Bowers said, however, that the Lions view was "that there does need to be a team, and we can understand the strategic importance of growing the game in south-east Queensland."
Also yesterday, Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke described as a "cop-out" the Kangaroos' decision to reject relocation due to the AFL's failure to secure a stadium deal.
"The AFL is a very good business organisation. If they say they'll get a ground for you, they'll get a ground for you," Clarke said..
"That was a straight cop-out. The AFL guaranteed (a ground) and the AFL have got the resources to make sure that happens."
As the re-badged North Melbourne Football Club geared up for a fight for survival in Melbourne, Denis Pagan was reunited with the the club he led to two premierships.
Pagan yesterday joined the board, saying he did not want to see the club fade away. "I just didn't want to see the club, after a 138-year history, disintegrate into nothing, and that's what would have happened if we had gone to the Gold Coast," Pagan told Southern Cross Radio.
With AAP
