Former Wallabies coach Alan Jones believes Queensland Reds must advertise Richard Graham's position now, allowing them to conduct a full review of potential candidates at the end of the season.

The Reds' dire 2015 season hit a new low when the 2011 champions suffered a humiliating 58-17 hammering at the hands of the Crusaders in Christchurch, a defeat Graham labelled "disgraceful". Just 24 hours later, the Reds unveiled former coach and Queensland legend John Connolly as a consultant for the remainder of the season; and then early this week they announced dual international Brad Thorn had been signed as a specialist forwards coach for 2016.

But Jones, who coached the Wallabies on their famous Grand Slam tour of 1984, believes the Reds haven't yet attacked the source of the problem. Citing his tenure as national boss, Jones said he couldn't understand why coaching contracts did not operate on a year-to-year basis that allows for review at the end of each season.

Richard Graham looks to have the Reds' support, for now © Getty Images

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"I'm terribly old-fashioned, but when I coached Australia I never expected, and nor was I granted, any automatic endorsement of the job for next year. It was advertised again, the job," Jones told Greg Growden in an engaging exclusive feature-length interview for ESPN.

"I finished my 12 months and, why not? It was advertised again, I applied again; now when we had all of that success, no one applied - no one opposed me. But then in the final year [1987] when we lost the World Cup when we shouldn't have because of that business at Concord Oval and [Serge] Blanco scored a try after the bell and so on; then there were question marks over whether I'd been there for too long and so on, and other people applied. But Bob Dwyer had to apply and he got the job; and good on him, he got the job.

"But why wouldn't you say in Queensland: 'Look, Richard, we're grateful for what you've done but we're going to open this up and call for applications, see what sort of people we get, and we'll have a panel with some knowledge and ability to scrutinise the applicants and we'll pick the best person'? Why don't we do this? I don't understand. There are outstanding people in the wings who don't have a guernsey, but they're not even considered."

Former Wales and Wallabies assistant Scott Johnson is one potential option for the Reds while Melbourne Rebels assistant Todd Louden is believed to be in high demand across Europe.

Speaking on the Scrum5 podcast, ESPN columnist Greg Growden said the Reds would be wise to at least approach Johnson despite rumours out of Ballymore - "they're not rumours," Jones said - suggesting that Graham more than likely would coach the team next season.

"I don't know whether this is providing the right image for Queensland," Growden said of Connolly's return to the Reds. "It's not as if we're short of good coaches around … like Scott Johnson, who now lives in Queensland on the Gold Coast. He'd be a perfect person to come in; someone with new ideas. And there are other people around as well. They just need a shake-up and that's been my worry the last 18 months or so, they've just been on a treadmill not doing much."

Rumours of player unrest have also been emanating out of Queensland since before the start of the season. Star five-eighth Quade Cooper, who is the target of a big-money offer from French giants Toulon, is rumoured to have clashed with Graham and other Reds officials when he was forced to withdraw from a boxing bout, while reports emerged just last week that form flanker Liam Gill was entertaining a move to Melbourne Rebels next season.

Neither the ongoing speculation around Cooper's future nor talk of Gill's possible departure have hastened any decisions in Brisbane, though, with Reds chief executive Jim Carmichael again this week reinforcing the message about the club's ongoing internal review.

"As I have said previously, we have been conducting a review of our high performance area for some time, which is continuing, in order to deliver our short and long-term outcomes," Carmichael said. "We've identified areas that require strengthening to provide the team with the appropriate support and structures moving forward."

Coming soon to ESPN: the full feature-length video interview with former Wallabies coach Alan Jones, who, not surprisingly, shares some powerful views and opinions.