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Essendon coach Ben Rutten feels Sam Mitchell will benefit enormously from having another year under Alastair Clarkson before taking over at Hawthorn.
Simon Goodwin and Ben Rutten have given a big thumbs up to coaching succession plans, but say nothing will truly prepare coach-in-waiting Sam Mitchell for the hot seat.
Hawthorn will become the latest club to implement a succession plan when master coach Alastair Clarkson hands over the reins to Mitchell at the end of next season.
Collingwood's own experience with a handover was an ugly one, with Mick Malthouse miffed that he had to hand over a team that was still in premiership contention to Nathan Buckley at the end of 2011.
Goodwin (Melbourne) and Rutten (Essendon) enjoyed much smoother transitions.
Rutten took over from John Worsfold at the end of last year, while Goodwin had several years under Paul Roos before taking over at the end of 2016.
Goodwin felt fortunate to be able to learn off Roos before becoming the senior coach, but said even that positive experience couldn't truly prepare him for everything that was lying in wait.
"I don't think you're ever ready to be a senior coach," Goodwin said.
"Even going through a succession plan - although it gave me a great grounding for the job - you're never ready for the scrutiny and intensity once you sit in the chair.
"I was really fortunate with the relationship that I had (with Roos), the guidance he gave in those few years, and the transition was really smooth.
"There are times where you look at your own coaching philosophy and there are things that you would do differently and things you would like to implement once you become the senior coach.
"But at the time Paul was the senior coach, I knew my role within that, it gave me a great opportunity to build a relationship with the players, understand the club, understand the staff, and work out the best way forward."
Rutten feels Mitchell will benefit immensely from Hawthorn's coaching handover.
"Being able to work really closely with someone like Alastair I think is going to be hugely beneficial and an experience I'm sure will set him up to be as best prepared as he can possibly be," Rutten said.
"It's going to be different for every situation but from my experience, working with Woosh, it was about best preparing me to be a senior coach.
"Nothing really prepares you for it (better) than actually being in the job, but to have a period of time working really closely with an experienced mentor, so to speak, I think that's the best possible way you could go about it if you had the choice."