John Longmire, the former North Melbourne great is doing what everyone seems to be doing, which is to avoid the vacancy at the coaching position that the Kangaroos have on their hands.
The Roos are looking for a full-time successor to the dearly departed Brad Scott, but Longmire either is playing coy or truly does not want to be involved with the floundering franchise.
Longmire was at a celebration to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Norths’ 1999 AFL premiership.
A 20-year drought does deserve some sort of observance, but Longmire, who played precisely 200 games for North Melbourne between 1988 and 1999, was quick to make it clear that he was not a primary candidate for the penance of coaching the Kangaroos.
Just to illustrate how time changes things, the Roos beat the Carlton Blues in the 1999 Grand Final.
Nowadays, about the only way to associate those two clubs with the Grand Final is if someone were to say, “Isn’t it grand that Carlton and North Melbourne are finally done for the 2019 AFL season?”
Longmire, rightly so, feels he is better off in his coaching position with the Sydney Swans, even if the past several seasons have been beneath the expectations created when Longmire coached the Swans to the 2012 AFL Premiership.
Asked specifically if Glenn Archer, a member of the panel conducting the search for the Roos’ next senior coach, Longmire simply said, “I’m not commenting on that job because, as I said a couple of weeks ago, I’ve got a job here and that’s what I am focusing on.”
Focus and perhaps a little hocus-pocus might be necessary if Longmire is to claim to have a job after 2019.
The Swans are found far down the ladder, on the 15th rung, so a move to North Melbourne would take Longmire up a couple rungs, but other than the recent 45-point shelling of the 2018 premiers West Coast Eagles, the Swans have done nothing to suggest that the home-and-away season offers any hope of a top-eight finish.
