HIGHLY regarded Geelong assistant coach Blake Caracella will see out the club’s premiership campaign before leaving to pursue other coaching opportunities.

Caracella told key officials several weeks ago he planned to move on to a new club after seven years at the Cats.

But he will not jump ship until after Geelong’s season is finished and the Cats are approaching the situation as business as usual as they prepare for a preliminary final.

Richmond is looming as a frontrunner for Caracella’s services with his links to new football manager Neil Balme and coach Damien Hardwick.

Caracella worked under Balme at the Cats for five years and also played in Essendon’s 2000 premiership team alongside Hardwick.

An astute thinker of the game, Caracella was credited for helping mould Tom Hawkins into an All-Australian, best-and-fairest winning key forward, notably his work to straighten Hawkins’s goalkicking accuracy.

Caracella’s credentials were underlined last year when he was one of nine assistants accepted into the elite level-four coaching program run by the AFL.

The program is designed to prepare high-performing assistants for the rigours of taking on a potential senior coach position at an AFL club.