A smooth Sydney succession plan has persuaded former North Melbourne premiership player John Longmire to shun the romantic notion of coaching his old AFL club.

The Swans assistant will instead take over from his long-time mentor Paul Roos as Sydney's head coach after the 2010 season, initially for a two-year term.

The Swans' move comes just 15 days after a similar announcement from Collingwood that Nathan Buckley will replace Mick Malthouse as coach for the 2012 season.

But unlike Buckley, who made his name as the long-serving Magpies' skipper, for Longmire it meant foregoing the possibility of guiding the club he played for.

Longmire, who played 200 games for the `Roos, the last of which was their 1999 grand final victory, was a short-listed contender for their vacant coaching post and due to be interviewed this week.

Buckley had been the Kangaroos' prime target before his deal with Collingwood.

But while Buckley has no coaching experience within the AFL, Longmire has honed his craft as an assistant since Roos took over the job from Rodney Eade midway through the 2002 season.

With the handover plan conceived several years ago, Roos has increased Longmire's responsibilities to prepare him to take charge.

"I just think there's no better person to learn off," Longmire said.

"I just feel that being assistant coach and then the last few years, my role changing a little, and the responsibility that Roosy's given me has been fantastic and quite unique and, from that point of view, I couldn't be more prepared."

He said having Roos in charge for another year was ideal.

"It allows us all, myself as the coach beyond next year and the football club, to plan to use Paul's football knowledge even more than what we have which is, I think, a great opportunity."

Longmire said he had not received a concrete offer from North and nor had he used the situation to try to lever the Swans into hurrying their decision.

"Obviously the North Melbourne job was appealing, being an ex-player," he said.

"But from my experience here, and I've been here for eight years, and working with the people that I have, it's just a terrific football club."

Roos has led the Swans to the finals in all of his completed seasons so far, including the historic 2005 premiership and a losing grand final the following year.

He intends to stay on with the Swans in some role beyond his coaching tenure, possibly in talent identification.

But he dismissed the idea of ever taking up the coaching reins again elsewhere.

"I've always said I'm not a career coach, I've seen myself as the right person to coach this football club," he said.

"At the end of next year, I see John as the absolute right person to coach this football club and I certainly can't see myself coaching anywhere else."

He said the transitional nature of the Swans' current playing list influenced his timing, but his decision to step down was mainly about family, particularly as a father to two teenage boys.

"Everyone who's got kids understands the demands on that ... there's some things that we want to do as a family that we haven't been able to do because of football," he said.

The Swans have also announced chief executive Myles Baron-Hay will step down from his position at the end of the season.

Football manager Andrew Ireland will replace him in that role, with the club seeking a new person to head their football department.

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