BRISBANE is being urged to appoint Adelaide’s head of football David Noble as the club’s next senior coach ahead of early favourite Brett Ratten.

Noble has spent more than a decade at the Crows, filling a range of positions, and is now being considered among the frontrunners to replace the axed Justin Leppitsch.

The Lions are left with the vacancy after sacking Leppitsch on Monday. He was released from his contract after three years with the club.

Noble is currently the head of football at Adelaide, having held the position since 2014. Prior to that, he spent six years as an assistant coach with the Crows and three years as the club’s list manager.

Finals Week 1

Speaking earlier this month, former Brownlow Medal winner Gerard Healy lauded Noble’s credentials to step into a coaching role at some point in the future.

“He’s got a fantastic CV, he’s coached his own team, he was a terrific player in his own right, he’s run his own business and he’s also run the football department at Adelaide,” Healy said.

It was a sentiment echoed by dual North Melbourne premiership player David King.

“He ticks every box and the word you hear out of Adelaide is that he’s extremely professional,” King told Fox Footy’s On The Couch.

“There’s nothing that he hasn’t seen in football and I’d be staggered if he wasn’t the No.1 coach in waiting. I don’t think it’s a massive field at the moment, but we didn’t know who Don Pyke was until this season and the Crows have never played better.”

David Noble films Adelaide’s three-quarter time huddle earlier this season. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: News Corp Australia

Meanwhile, in an Adelaide Advertiser column written earlier in August, former Port Adelaide and Geelong player Dwayne Russell said to “take it as fact” that his name had “reached Brisbane’s radar”.

The 49-year-old has also coached SANFL side Glenelg as part of an extensive CV and spent five years as an assistant at the Western Bulldogs.

A two-game player with Fitzroy in the early 1990s, Noble played a significant role in the appointments of both Phil Walsh and Don Pyke at the Crows.

Pyke has led Adelaide to a fifth-placed finish this season with an impressive 16-6 record, despite the loss of reigning best and fairest winner Patrick Dangerfield last year.

Ratten remains the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Leppitsch, while ex-Western Bulldogs assistant Brett Montgomery and Sydney assistant Stuart Dew have also been placed among the leading contenders for the role.

Brisbane stressed on Monday they were yet to identify a shortlist for the position.

“Ultimately, we’ll just get the best coach there is,” Lions chief Greg Swann said. “We don’t have a pre-conceived view whether it’s inexperienced or someone that’s done a level four (coaching course).

“We’ll put that criteria and put a panel together and hopefully begin that search relatively soon.”

NOBLE’S CREDENTIALS

2 games at Fitzroy (1991).

Victorian manager of business services at AMP Society (1992-1995).

Head coach at the NSW/ACT Rams (1995-1997)

Assistant coach at the Western Bulldogs (1998-2002).

Senior coach at Glenelg (2003-2004).

Assistant coach at Adelaide (2005-2010).

GM of list development and strategy at Adelaide (2011-2013).

Head of Football at Adelaide (2014-2016).

TAB MARKET

$2.50 Brett Ratten

$5.00 Brett Montgomery

$7.00 Michael Voss

$8.00 David Noble

$9.00 Mark Thompson

$9.00 Stuart Dew