Hawthorn senior coach Sam Mitchell has endorsed assistant coaches David Hale and Adrian Hickmott as potential candidates for the vacant West Coast job.
The role was made vacant by the departure of 2018 premiership coach Adam Simpson two weeks ago, with many aspirants flagged in the process.
However, with favourite son Dean Cox ultimately denying any possible move away from Sydney, while Port Adelaide's Ken Hinkley and Josh Carr disputed any links to the Eagles, the race for the job appears wide open.
And Mitchell believes it'd be remiss of West Coast not to call both Hale and Hickmott.
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โYeah, I chat with all of our coaches about their future plans, their aspirations and where they'd like to be,โ Mitchell said onย SEN.
โIt's really an interesting position as the head coach because there's a part of me that would absolutely love โHick' to get an opportunity to be a head coach because I think he would be fantastic at it.
โBut there's a part of me that would be heartbroken because I'd lose him from my own staff.
โBut I think if I was West Coast, I'd certainly be picking up the phone to both David Hale and Adrian Hickmott.
โI think they're both potential head coaches, but they would very much be missed from us if they were to get that job.
โBut there's no doubt they'd be successful in that role.โ
Hale and Hickmott both joined Hawthorn ahead of the 2022 season from rival clubs.
Hickmott was previously at Essendon (development coach) and the Eagles (backline coach).
Hale was an assistant at Fremantle for six years before re-joining Hawthorn.
