rhino27 wrote:
Is it possible the club has instructed him to say that? Try and avoid any distraction or media circus. Just let him focus on coaching. Hasn't really worked out that way but is that a possibility?
Yep, I suspect there's a fair bit of PR management going on. Mainly due to the timing of Voss' departure and the 3 month+ caretaker period Josh and the club have to negotiate.
If he had declared an interest already the media hyperbole would be properly off the charts right now. They'd be pumping him up so much that it would likely hinder our timeline and quite probably deter other candidates, or lose to the Hawks, and they'll start the death ride (we may yet see this).
You're right that the media is still hyping him up but at least they can only speculate, for now at least.
I reckon the club wants as much clean air as they can get while they can (there may not be much left). This lets them progress the search for our next coach as per their plan and timeline. Clearly winning 7 games in a row is a very good thing, but I don't think anyone inside the club expected this and it has meant the media hype around Josh continues to build.
Also, Josh's responses have been slowly evolving over the last few weeks, starting with the original "yeah, nah I'm not interested" to a softer, "do you ever know when you're ready?"
Let's see what the messaging from him and the club is after the Collingwood game. There'll be 4 H&A games left and the results in the next 2 games will have a big bearing on our finals-lite possibility and the future of Fraser as a declared candidate.