Giansiracusa a candidate for Carlton coaching job

Essendon assistant coach and former Bulldog Daniel Giansiracusa will be interviewed by Carlton as part of the club’s expanded search for a new senior coach.

Giansiracusa is among several candidates whom the Blues are set to speak with in the coming days, as the club’s five-member panel looks for the right person to replace David Teague.

Daniel Giansiracusa has emerged as a candidate for the Carlton job.Credit: Getty Images

Giansiracusa currently coaches Essendon’s back line and team defence and has impressed the Bombers with his acumen and relationships with players.

That Giansiracusa has been invited into the Carlton process is a sign that the club is willing to look at a variety of candidates, with different levels of experience. The Blues were keen to speak with ex-North Melbourne coach Brad Scott, and have been in touch with Port Adelaide senior assistant and ex-Brisbane Lions senior coach Michael Voss, while Richmond’s highly rated assistant Adam Kingsley – who went deep in the Collingwood search that settled on Craig McRae – is another whom industry sources said the Blues would sound out.

Giansiracusa, 39, made a positive impression when he presented for the North Melbourne senior coaching job in 2020, with the job going to the more seasoned David Noble as Rhyce Shaw’s replacement. He coached as an assistant with his old team the Bulldogs from 2015 until the end of 2020 before joining Essendon as a key lieutenant to Ben Rutten.

Geelong insiders say that their coach Chris Scott is committed to coaching the Cats next year – he has another year on his contract – and believe he can be dismissed as a candidate for the Carlton position.

But uncertainty surrounds Scott’s Geelong panel, with Corey Enright a strong chance to move on and defensive coach Matthew Scarlett’s future also uncertain.

Brad Scott is a leading candidate to fill a senior football management role with the AFL – at least part of the duties of the previous football boss Steve Hocking. Scott has not gone public with his plans as yet, but the Blues want him in the process.

Carlton approached four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson about taking the job, with Clarkson’s management more than once saying that the now-departed Hawthorn coach would not coach in 2022, when he will be paid the final year of his contract as Sam Mitchell takes the reins.

Carlton have been reluctant to give up on Clarkson, but the fact that the club is interviewing a host of other candidates can be read as a signal that the Blues are pressing on with a process wider than what was first mooted by president Luke Sayers.

Ross Lyon, the ex-St Kilda and Fremantle coach, had been sounded out by Sayers and had declared interest in coaching Carlton, but subsequently withdrew after learning the process was slated to take between 30 and 45 days.

New board member and former champion Greg Williams is heading up the coach search, supported by three-time premiership coach David Parkin, board members Patty Kinnersley and Tim Lincoln and head of football Brad Lloyd, who has retained his position following the review of the football department that ended with the sacking of Teague and exit of some of their assistant coaches.

Should Brian Cook, the exiting Geelong chief executive, take up the same role with the Blues, as Geelong expects, he would join the panel, replacing removed CEO Cain Liddle.

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