Sydney coach John Longmire has sung the praises of his senior assistant Staurt Dew, who is considered one of the frontline candidates for the Gold Coast job.
The Suns earlier this week opted not to renew Rodney Eade's contract and assistant Dean Solomon is filling their head coaching post on an interim basis for their last three games of the season.
Dew is widely considered a head coach in waiting and is highly regarded by the Swans, to whom he is contracted for next season.
A premiership player with both Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, Dew has been with Sydney since late 2009.
Dew has held a number of positions at the Swans, overseeing the defence, development and stoppage areas at different times.
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"He plays a key role at our footy club week in week out, either in preview or review, at training sessions," Longmire said.
"He's highly experienced and a very good coach for what he's doing now.
"He's very well prepared and he's very important to what we do."
Longmire, who served his own apprenticeship at Sydney under his predecessor Paul Roos, said Dew had taken time to broaden his knowledge in numerous areas, and not just coaching.
"He's been able to do that at this footy club and get involved in other areas that are important to have that experience in if you want to go on and be a senior coach," Longmire said.
"We've been keen to help him with those areas and he's certainly been very good at it; so he's a fantastic coach for this footy club and I'm sure whatever he wants to do going forward that he'll be very good at it."
Asked if Dew handled stress well Longmire laughed and said, "You don't really know what stress is until you're a senior coach."
