Middleton has been at the Emus' helm since 2017 and the club is hoping to keep him on for another Central Highlands Football League campaign.

Skipton football manager Chris Gawne said the main concern for Middleton was around list retention and remaining competitive after a breakthrough finals appearance in 2019.

"We've spoken with Greg and we are keen for him to keep going in 2021," Gawne said.

"We have had discussions with him, put an offer to him and Greg asked us to get back to him and (has) given us some certain assurances to meet. We are in the process of working through that at the moment."

Gawne said he was confident that Middleton would sign on if those assurances could be met.

"They're quite amicable, the discussions," he said.

"I understand it from Greg's point of view. He's put in a lot of hard work over the years. He got the club from an extremely precarious position to being competitive and making the finals and acquitting ourselves okay in that final we did play.

"Greg doesn't want to make the commitment to go backwards and I completely understand that.

"His concern is that we'd then need another rebuild and whoever is going to do that needs to have control of that from the start.

"He's considering the club and himself in that. And to be honest, it's probably more about the club..."

Middleton has been massive in Skipton's resurgence in recent years. He signed ahead of the 2017 season when the club was in massive trouble and despite not winning a game at all during his first campaign, made significant inroads the following year to claim six victories. Then in 2019, the Emus secured their first finals berth in the CHFL before bombing out in the elimination final against Hepburn.

Before landing at Skipton, Middleton led Bungaree to a long-awaited flag in 2014 and was coach of successful Central Highlands FL teams in the statewide country championships.