After 40 years as a player and a coach, the football world has very little idea of just who Kevin Sheedy is. But we do know he is very good coach and just as good a salesman. You don't coach a club for 27 years in this caper without having more than a bit of both.
On Sunday night, after his side kept alive its season with a 12-point win, Sheedy the salesman was at times cryptic, sometimes charming and also guarded, especially when he verged on divulging more information about himself than he intended, when he fronted the scribes.
When asked how much work he had done 'beyond this season', Sheedy answered in terms of what thought he had given to his own future rather than that of the club.
"That's a delicate question," Sheedy said, pausing to give himself more time to think.
"I haven't even discussed anything with my wife. I can't remember her name at the moment. But I'll meet her soon and she'll just remind me that 'don't make any decisions without her', and that's fair enough."
While he was reluctant to comment directly on the club's decision to move on without him, Sheedy made it clear he still believed he could coach for a 28th season.
"At the moment I feel like Humpty Dumpty but I can still think that I can still coach so that's not too bad," he said.
In the nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and not even 'all the king's horses and all the king's men' could put him back together again, which does not bode overly well for Sheedy.
However, he said the list inherited by his successor would be in far better shape.
"I cleared the place out which is what was needed and we probably used the whole of this year and most of last year to try to give them experience and game experience," he said.
"I've got no doubt this list will be a good list next year, no doubt. Whoever does get that job will have a very exciting footy team."
"If I can get someone back in and give them a little bit more experience then it's probably not a bad time just to sort of leave."
Sheedy has at least five games left before that happens. And he gave the impression he could leave with a bang.
On Sunday, without being asked directly, he was more than willing to point the finger at an assistant coach for miscalculating the length of time David Hille, the game's dominant ruckman, spent on the bench when the game was to be won in the final term.
"The bench and Gary should sort of sort that out," Sheedy said, without identifying which Gary - Ayres or O'Donnell - was to blame.
But it was his answer to the second last question, whether he considered it a challenge to guide into the finals the club which no longer wanted him, which required more explanation.
"I'm pretty ruthless. When I move on you'll know and so whatever happens in the next 12 months will know. Don't ever think that that won't happen," he said.
"That's how I left Richmond, remember, and people do forget. So there'll be a very ferocious person let out of a cage at the end of this year and you know that."
When asked to elaborate, Sheedy, with his trademark charm, ended the press conference.
"Doesn't matter," he said. "We only have to be here five minutes."
Sheedy has been in the caper for far longer than that to be more candid than he wants.