Melbourne Football Club captain Max Gawn knows a thing or two about interim coaches and has expressed sympathy for the challenge confronting Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps over the next 15 weeks after the departure of coach Michael Voss.
Gawn had experience in a similar matter when premiership coach Simon Goodwin left with three weeks remaining in last year's season, and was replaced by Troy Chaplin.
Blues assistant Josh Fraser will step in following Voss' resignation, but the long period he has in the hot seat won't bode well for the stress and anxiety of players as they begin to think about their future.
"I feel like its premature," Gawn said on Triple M.
"15 weeks for an interim coach is a long time. I'd be worried if I was the captain with an interim coach for 15 weeks.
"To be fair, it could be different, because we only had three weeks but I felt like if we had four, we would be struggling. It was almost like three was right on the amount.
"They might be able to set it up a little bit better for having a lot longer but obviously is out of the building, so you don't know where it's going, and that's a weird place for a footballer to be. I was captain last year during the three weeks, and I had players who were worried about their contract, they didn't know who was going to give them a contract. Worried about getting selected. I was worried and I'm a captain who had seven All-Australians behind his name.
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"I'm not going to blame any of these Carlton guys over the next 15 weeks because right now, their job is up in the air. No one really knows.
"Players are naive. A week ago, I'm presuming, Michael Voss was still talking about the future. And Goody, after we beat West Coast by 100 points and got shown the door, and Goody was talking in leadership groups and me personally, about next year, so you're always talking about that.
"I'd be worried, and it's a big job for Crippa. He's had a mountain of work over the last five, six years, and he's got another big one now to keep everything going."
Carlton has big decisions to make on 20 uncontracted players, including Zac Williams, Mitch McGovern, Nic Newman, Adam Saad and Oliver Hollands.
However, contracted players like Cripps (2027) and Jacob Weitering (2031) are being discussed as potential trade options, as is George Hewett (2027).
Weitering is understood to be open to hearing offers from rival clubs, and stands among very few Blues players with any trade value.
Cripps has the allure of returning to his home state, Western Australia, while Hewett's growing frustration from spending a chunk of time in the VFL has resulted in the midfielder beginning to think about his future.
