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📻 IMPORTANT AUCKLAND UPDATE 📻
Simpson insists he won’t coach in 2026
Andrew Slevison • August 11th, 2025 11:19 am
Adam Simpson has ruled himself out of coaching for next year at the very least.
The West Coast premiership coach has been linked with the newly-created vacancy at Melbourne after Simon Goodwin parted ways with the Demons last week.
Former Sydney coach John Longmire has also ruled himself out of the running and now Simpson similarly says he will not be returning to the coaching caper anytime soon.
“I don’t want to coach next year,” Simpson said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“I think I’ll give it a spell. I was thinking through it over the weekend and I know ‘Horse’ (Longmire) has done the same thing.
“It just doesn’t feel like it’s the right time to be available.”
Simpson says he has not yet heard from the Demons which has made his decision a little bit easier.
He plans to stay in the media for the foreseeable future where he has performed so well for SEN and Fox Footy this year.
“They haven’t called me,” he added. “And sometimes you wait for these things because you might think, ’I’m not interested’, but then you get the phone call and you go, ‘Oh hang on, I’m wanted’, and then you sort of pivot in a different way.
“I’ve had a good think about it and I’m just not in the right headspace with it. I’m enjoying all this.
“It’s the same things that Horse (said) really. He’s a bit different, it’s only been eight months for him, it’s been a bit longer for me.
“The passion to go through all the process, because once you get approached it’s turbo and you need to really be prepared. I’m not really prepared and not in the right headspace.
“I’ll continue to do this if this is part of my brief next year. I feel like that’s the path I’m taking at the moment.”
Simpson departed the Eagles in July 2024 and is enjoying his time out of the pressure-cooker world of senior AFL coaching.
