Alastair Clarkson is the most wanted man in football at the moment.
The four-time premiership coach was pushed out of the Hawks prematurely in their failed coaching succession plan and is now jobless heading into the off-season.
There are now a few clubs that are, by many accounts, in the hunt for the legendary coach, however there is only one which seems like a perfect match.
They're not in Melbourne either.
The Gold Coast Suns have consistently fallen short of their goal to play September footy year after year since their entry into the league in 2011.
Their closest shave with the prospect came in 2014 when the club finished 12th, two wins out of eighth place.
Since current coach Stuart Dew's appointment in 2018, Gold Coast have only managed to rise as high as 14th - a far cry from where the board would have hoped.
The main gripe with this is that fans and neutrals alike are well aware of what the unbridled potential the club boasts.
They are arguably the competition benchmark when it comes to young talent, with the likes of Essendon and perhaps Melbourne coming close.
Matt Rowell, Jack Lukosius, Ben King, Noah Anderson, Wil Powell, Izak Rankine, Charlie Ballard, Will Brodie - the list goes on.
The rise of serial ball magnet Touk Miller this year has been a rare highlight for the Suns, and with the likes of Josh Corbett and Ben Ainsworth getting another year under their belt, it feels like all the club needs is a little push in order to rise up the table.
Midfielder
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And that push could come in the form of Alastair Clarkson.
Comparing Gold Coast's list to the likes of Carlton and Collingwood, you could say that the Suns are the ripest for picking at this point in time based on talent.
The Blues with all their recruitment in trade period 2020 still seem to have a few too many passengers in the side.
Yes, there are the obvious stars - Walsh, Cripps, McKay, Weitering - but the potential of the side feels like it has a lower ceiling as of current when compared to the Suns.
In season 2021, the Blues managed eight wins, with only one of them coming against a current top-eight side.
Perhaps a sign of their progress was best exemplified in Round 21 when they were beaten by the Suns, effectively extinguishing their finals flame.
The Magpies on the other hand are at a completely different phase relative to the other two clubs.
With the team in a serious transitional period, Clarkson would be walking head-first into a rebuild that could turn out to be an arduous one considering the problems within the inner sanctum at Collingwood.
Despite having an exciting crop of youngsters such as Josh Daicos, Beau McCreery and Oliver Henry, the Pies are in strife with their salary cap problems set to haunt them for the near future.
This could in-turn lead to the club having to let go of a few of their stars in similar style to that of trade period 2020.
The prospect of Clarkson moving up to Queensland would be an irresistible one for the AFL, with the idea of footballing royalty coming to a struggling northern side to help elevate them to new heights a priceless initiative for advertising the game in a rugby-dominated state.
The plethora of experience that he would be invaluable to with the likes of Rowell, Anderson and King could help mould them into the superstars that so many are convinced they will become.
Even thoughย Dew has by many metrics underachieved with the Suns, the truth is that if Clarkson does flag his intentions to move up north, it doesn't necessarily have to come at the cost of Dew's job.
A behind the scenes role forย Clarkson, whether that be in the office or in the coaches box could be all that the club and Dew needs to take the next step.
The connection between the two in the form of Clarkson coaching Dew to a premiership in 2008 with Hawthorn could be replicated, this time with Clarkson facilitating Dew's rise as an aspiring coach.
As seen in Amazon Prime's Making their Mark doco-series, there is no doubt that behind the scenesย Dew has what it takes to be an AFL coach and that his players respect him massively.
And with the glimpses of brilliance that the side has shown in 2021, maybe all it takes is a bit of Alastair Clarkson know-how to turn those glimpses into full view.
