Essendon leader Brendon Goddard has urged the club to replace James Hird with an experienced and proven AFL coach.
The club is set to announce the selection panel for the coach this week, with chairman Paul Little hoping to confirm the appointment by mid-October.
Speaking on ABC radio, Goddard said the club would benefit more from a proven leader than an up-and-coming assistant.
"I'd like to see someone with a bit of experience," he said.
"I don't think we need to go an inexperienced coach ... I don't think our list is at that point, I'd like to see a strong, opinionated kind of guy."
Goddard has played under both inexperienced and long-term coaches through his career.
At St Kilda he had Grant Thomas, Ross Lyon and Scott Watters as senior coaches.
James Hird and Mark Thompson have been his senior coaches at Essendon.
The 30-year-old acknowledged his desire for a proven mentor.
"Obviously it's slim pickings out there with guys that have been successful and have coached a long time," he said.
"There's a few obvious names that pop up."
John Worsfold, who won the 1992 and 1994 premierships with West Coast as a player and coached the Eagles to the 2006 flag, is the most obvious.
Of unemployed coaches, only Worsfold, the retired Mick Malthouse and Thompson have won premierships in the past decade.
Goddard suggested his call was driven by the belief the Bombers could contend for success in the short-term.
"I don't buy into that talk about what's being said about our list externally," he said.
"The list where it is, there's a lot of potential."
In his pre-match address before the club's loss to Richmond on Saturday night, Little confirmed his timeline.
The Bombers hope to announce their coach before a members' forum in late October and hope for more good news to close out 2015 - a resolution to their sorry supplements scandal proceedings.
"We will leave no stone unturned in finding the best possible candidate for the role," Little said.
"We're confident and hopeful that the (WADA appeal) process could conclude by late November, early December.
"Wouldn't it be an amazing thing to have that, for the first time in three years to have our playing group able to take the field without the constant burden of this ASADA mess hanging over them?"
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