There's been plenty more men in charge of preseasons than when the very few efforts were rewarded with the holding of the premiership cup aloft since the last Aboriginal man left the coaching ranks.

The cold but harsh reality that only one other has been a coach across 126 seasons of the VFL/AFL – let alone the past 40 of them since Barry Cable – almost defies logic.

But Richmond with its broad list of Indigenous talent forming its nucleus appears to be in a position to land on the right side of history.

For some inside the club, there was anticipation that when Damien Hardwick called it a day that Xavier Clarke – one of the Tigers assistants in a seventh year at Punt Road – would take over the helm.

"He gives us great insight, he is a terrific coach in his own right, and he is very driven and very knowledgeable about what he presents," Hardwick once said of Clarke, on the eve of a Dreamtime at the 'G match, halfway into the understudy's second season.

It was implied that Clarke was the Richmond coach's right-hand man at time so early.

But the Larrakia and Amrreamo/Marritjavin man, who played 105 games at St Kilda, was overlooked for the Richmond caretaker role, and had to make way and leave ex-teammate Andrew McQualter to pick up the pieces of a faltering 2023 campaign.

The timing of Hardwick's resignation was notable: just days after a one-point defeat in the Dreamtime at the 'G clash against Essendon.

Talk about spoiling the very spirit of football's biggest Aboriginal pioneer, Sir Douglas Nicholls, in the AFL's Indigenous rounds during NAIDOC Week.

Clarke, the senior forwards coach, is now reported to be preparing to go through the interview process, according to AFL Media.

The club has asked only interested applicants to apply before progressing to the next stage that includes former Tigers captain Chris Newman, currently a Hawks assistant.

McQualter, a former Saint with Clarke and his internal rival, has also been shortlisted, as having a culture inside the Tigerland cage walls while not a prerequisite clearly is a distinct advantage for Richmond powerbrokers.

Jason Mifsud, the former AFL's head of diversity and, a decade ago, its one-time most senior Aboriginal employee, went on the record as early as 2018 on backing Clarke to coach sooner rather than later.

The outspoken Kirrae, Peek and Tjab Whurrong man from the Gunditjmara nation is adamant that casual racism still exists in footy circles and has felt there is "something dramatically wrong" about snubbing Indigenous candidates for senior coaching roles.

"If Xavier does not coach AFL in his own right, the people picking the coaches will one day look at themselves in the mirror and have to ask themselves real hard questions," Mifsud, a past Saints and Bulldogs assistant coach, said.

"He's an exceptional coach and different people have different views, but I think all of the characteristics I would want to see in a senior coach, he has them in spades.

"Now he just needs more exposure."

Meanwhile Neville Jetta at Collingwood, Travis Varcoe at Western Bulldogs and Roger Hayden at Fremantle sit quietly more than patiently in the queue, as the only other Indigenous assistant coaches but in a less senior position than Clarke's.

The Aboriginal men from about 150 coaches out there counts for barely 2.5 per cent of all the assistants compared to 77 players, which is 10 per cent across clubs' lists.

While that demographic steadied in the last decade, the playing numbers were rising ten-fold over the previous 30 years.

The comparable figures between coaches and players that's largely ignored simply or does not logically add up.

"If we leave the game to just unearth a generation of Indigenous coaches, well, I think the evidence would dictate that it's going to be so incremental," Mifsud said.

"It's not a favourable response or a reflection that anybody should be proud of, either currently or into the future, and something's wrong when you consider it's been years since Barry Cable coached North Melbourne."

Graham 'Polly' Farmer, another Noongar football legend, was the first Indigenous VFL coach almost a decade earlier than Cable but in an even less progressive time should the fact Geelong fans adoring the greatest ruckman of all time is discounted.

Both West Australians coached at WAFL clubs before and also after leaving Victoria.

The spotlight on Clarke's credentials are there but after coaching Richmond's reserves in his own right before that, he was also the development coach at the Tigers.

The Territorian previously coached the former NT Thunder to the club's 2015 NEAFL premiership during a three-year stint that astoundingly came after Clarke was named coach of the year in just his first season ever mentoring a team.

Clarke was also appointed straight out of playing for the Saints as the first Indigenous coordinator at AFL House that work out strategies that was aimed to assist and aid all First Nations players transitioning out of the game.

That sort of groundwork was enough to convince some nodding heads of the 39-year-old's growing status in football circles as a top man manager and communicator.

An insight into his selfless philosophy towards being the public face of the club came from an interview on Richmond's own website leading into the Dreamtime at the G' game and by extension not long before Gold Coast-bound Hardwick quit.

Clarke had trouble naming his proudest coaching moment, back in the Top End or at Richmond, or a player at the club that he has turned around their fortunes.

"It's a hard one because our job is to do that for everyone," Clarke said.

"If we're not doing that with every single player, then we're just not doing our job.

"I like to think I've helped them all."

Richmond will appoint the best man for the job, but it's important not necessarily for Clarke's sake but for First Nations people that Clarke is appointed the next AFL coach.

If not for anything else, but to break down a stigma that some clubs possible still hold.

The AFL once had discussions on adopting a rule from America's NFL that commands clubs interview "ethnic-minority" candidates to fast-track them to the head positions.

It was never implemented over the past decade.

Premiership coach Mark Williams, who is of Afro-Caribbean origins, was a consultant to view coaching pathways in American basketball and English football concerning men of colour following his time in charge of the AFL Diversity Coaching Academy.

A key recommendation was mandating that clubs have an Indigenous coach to cover a "need for understanding cultural stuff" in line with continual growth of the players.

That struck a chord with Tanya Hosch, the first Aboriginal person and second woman to join the AFL executive in a newly created role of general manager of inclusion and social policy, but that does not pragmatically mean 14 more coaches will appear soon.

The Tigers will say Clarke has got to the interviewing stage for the senior head job on his merits alone.

"It definitely is something I'd love to see change. I meet a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, and they have got great visions and great lived experience in the game, and they've obviously been real legends in the game," she said.

"But I think that until a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people indicate that coaching is something they want, it's not one of my highest priorities."

Matthew Stokes, the ex-AFL Indigenous engagement and programs manager, after he retired following his 200th appearance including 189 at Geelong, while tends to agree with Hosch's beliefs also believes not enough has been done to address the imbalance.

Confidence to follow the right path rather than be one of the mob could be a factor.

In the light of uncertain accusations from past Indigenous players directed at former Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson and Brisbane coach Chris Fagan in his time at the Hawks, trust in clubs supporting them culturally may now be at an all-time low.

"There are different reasons and excuses why there aren't more," Stokes once told afl.com.au.

"But no-one's coming up with solutions or changing it – and that's probably the most damning part.

"We all understand there are (not many) coaches and that there are two sides to the story, but instead of worrying about whose fault or problem it is, why can't we move on and come up with a solution?"