COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire says club great Nathan Buckley won't be the only person in contention to be the next Magpies coach should Mick Malthouse step down or the Pies opt to replace him in the near future.

Although McGuire praised the efforts of Malthouse, he added current Collingwood assistant coaches, including Brad Scott, Blake Caracella, Gavin Brown and Mark Neeld were also fine options long-term.

"If the time came that we wanted to elevate a young person through our club, there are plenty of candidates," McGuire said at Melbourne's season launch lunch at the MCG on Friday.

"We believe we've got – if not the best – then someone who is as good as anybody in football in Michael Malthouse.

"And let there be no mistake that Mick Malthouse has done as much as anybody to rebuild the Collingwood Football Club."

Meanwhile, McGuire also said opting not to recruit West Coast great and new Tiger Ben Cousins was a "tough decision".

He said the Pies looked at "all of the issues outside of the obvious".

McGuire added Collingwood's young list, Cousins' age and hamstring injuries in 2007 were other contributing factors to the Pies not drafting him.

"We went into looking at Ben Cousins wanting to recruit him … when his documentary comes out, you'll see that we were looking at him when he wasn't right to play football," McGuire said.

"Ben was probably nearly right when St Kilda passed him and he got himself together and it's one of the great stories and let's hope it really goes well for him this year."

McGuire, his Hawthorn counterpart Jeff Kennett, Geelong patriarch Frank Costa and Melbourne president Jim Stynes held court at the Demons’ launch as they answered questions from reporters.