Essendon is closing in on its search for an assistant coach to replace Simon Goodwin ahead of the 2015 season.

Goodwin departed the Dons at the end of the season after accepting an offer to be Paul Roos' successor at Melbourne.

Senior coach James Hird said the club was continuing the search for Goodwin's replacement.

"We have set up an interview process and the guys are going through names at the moment to get a short list that we can start interviewing," Hird said.

"There are several candidates for that job."

"Simon was a fantastic person to have here at the club, terrific coach and he did a great job."

"The exciting thing is we get to bring in a new person, new talent with new ideas and we are going into that process at the moment."

"Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will have a pretty good announcement."

Essendon forward line coach Nathan Bassett will continue with the club in 2015 after missing out on the senior coaching role at Adelaide.

Hird praised the work of Bassett who joined the club at the beginning of the 2014 season.

"I didn't know a lot about Nathan, I had seen him play football and heard he had a good reputation as a coach over in South Australia," he said.

"When he was appointed I was excited that he was going to be ere and I am looking forward to working with him this year."

"I think he has found AFL football a little bit different to what he had back in Adelaide but I am excited to wrk with him."