RODNEY Eade will coach Gold Coast in 2015 with his wife Wendy confirming his passion for coaching was too "overwhelming" to ignore.
AFL.com.au understands he has accepted an offer to coach the club, attracted by the enticing prospect of taking over a talented young list with the potential to win a flag.
Eade is not expected to be unveiled as coach until later this week with details still being finalised between the respective parties.
But his wife revealed the former Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs coach will relocate to Queensland after accepting the job, while she remains in Melbourne as their daughter is going into year 12.
She said despite her "mixed feelings" about Eade's relocation, his desire to get back into a senior role was too strong to ignore when the offer was made.
"I know Rodney's passion to coach is still there and the list is fantastic on the Gold Coast," Wendy Eade told 3AW on Tuesday night.
"When they approached him it was just something we had to deal with and I'm absolutely delighted for him, to be honest.
"It wasn't that easy to make the decision, to be perfectly honest, but at the end of the day, Rodney's passion for coaching is overwhelming and I just want him to be happy.
"I am really excited. I've been telling my friends all day half of me is excited and half of me is a bit sad because Meg is going into VCE next year so I'll be staying here in Melbourne for 12 months to see Meg's final year at school be done with."
Eade, 56, did not win a flag in his 14 years with the Sydney Swans and the Western Bulldogs but led the Swans to the 1996 Grand Final in his first season as coach.
He took the Bulldogs to three preliminary finals, the last of them in 2010, and coached Australia's International Rules team in 2011.
The Suns went after Eade, meeting with him on the weekend to discuss the prospect of him returning to coaching.
He is considered an experienced football operator well suited to taking the talented young Suns list deep into the finals. He is also an experienced media person who played for the Brisbane Bears and coached their reserves to a premiership in 1991.
He has been working as football manager at Collingwood since 2013 replacing Geoff Walsh in that role. He had joined the Pies in 2012 in the newly created director of coaching role.
He previously worked with Suns list manager Scott Clayton at the Bulldogs.
