Only six weeks to go until the 2010 finals series, so a quiet word of advice to the phalanx of AFL assistant coaches who are sick of carrying the whiteboard around and fetching the boss's coffee: tidy up your CV and put it in a colourful plastic folder; smarten up that Power Point presentation and get your best suit dry-cleaned.

For the next 10 weeks or so could provide you with the opportunity for that senior role you've long coveted. So best start making preparations now for the big day when you've got to look and sound polished, make your pitch, and be right on top of your game.

And I'm talking about you, Brenton Sanderson, Ken Hinkley, Brett Montgomery, Justin Leppitsch, Leon Cameron, Alan Richardson, Mark Neeld, Peter Sumich and one or two others.

The last month has produced a series of results which means the positions of at least three coaches - Matthew Knights at Essendon, Michael Voss at Brisbane and Brett Ratten at Carlton - are now under serious scrutiny. (Bottom team West Coast's John Worsfold is apparently safe - for now - after an official show of support but history tells us those assurances can be quickly jettisoned if on-field performances become terminally bad.)

Given the swiftness with which Mark Williams was despatched from his position at Port Adelaide little more than a week ago, clubs in this expansion era clearly understand they can't afford to be queasy when it comes to bloodletting at the top.

The success of well-schooled young coaches such as Damien Hardwick, Brad Scott - and slightly older ones in Ross Lyon and Mark Harvey - only serves to increase the pressure on under-performing incumbents. Every club wants to identify the saviour who will lead them out of the wilderness.

Of that troubled trio, Knights is most feeling the pinch. Never truly embraced by a club that still lives to some extent in Kevin Sheedy's shadow, Knights' teams have produced some breathtaking footy in the past couple of years, but have also been terribly inconsistent.

The loss to West Coast on Saturday night was the Bombers' sixth in succession and third-straight to a side outside the eight, following shockers against Adelaide and Melbourne.

As some pundits have noted, freak performances such as that produced by West  Coast's Mark Le Cras - who kicked 12.3 as a medium-sized forward - have been known to cost opposition coaches their jobs.

The next month could make or break Knights - and a very public examination it is going to be. First comes the Kangaroos next Saturday followed by three Friday night, nationally televised fixtures: St Kilda at Etihad, then Carlton and Collingwood at the MCG. And as trials go, it doesn't get much tougher than those three very public performance reviews.

Voss's methods - and man-management skills - have suddenly started being questioned, too. Like Knights, Brisbane's 12-goal loss to Hawthorn in Tasmania at the weekend was the sixth defeat in a row he's experienced. The past five weeks, his Lions have been beaten by a total of 227 points, at an average of 45 points.

Sure, he's had Brown and Fevola well below peak fitness for much of the season - when they've been able to take to the park at all - but some of the lustre has gone from the one-time golden boy. He is enduring one of his toughest times in the game and those sceptics who wondered whether his lack of a serious grounding in the coaching caper - as an assistant somewhere for a year or two - might come back to haunt him are now having some of their concerns validated.

Finally, Carlton still sit in the top eight but have lost four of their past five. If the scuttlebutt's to be believed, some among the inner sanctum at Carlton are now having their patience sorely tested. The Blues have managed to beat St Kilda and Geelong this season but have lost to a succession of mediocrities.

A substandard performance at Subiaco against West Coast next weekend could really have the jungle drums beating.

So Messrs Sanderson, Hinkley and co, you've been warned. Start practising your spiel in front of the mirror; you'll be called to appear in front of the first coaching selection sub-committee any time soon.