AFL great Tim Watson says former Essendon coach Matthew Knights deserves a second chance at senior coaching.

The 48-year old took over the top job from Kevin Sheedy in 2008 but was sacked after three seasons in charge with a 25-41 record.

North Melbourne and Carlton are both searching for new coaches, and Watson believes Knights should be a target after mastering his craft as an assistant at Geelong.

"It was always going to be an impossible job to follow Kevin Sheedy at Essendon and he made some rookie-type errors in his judgements early on,โ€ Watson told SEN Breakfast.

โ€œI really admire what he has done. Heโ€™s gone back into coaching; he coached his own team at Geelong in the VFL for a while, heโ€™s on the coaching panel there, he would have learned a lot about the defensive mechanisms of coaching and how that underpins a team.

โ€œHe would have to be a much better coach second time around โ€ฆ and his name never gets mentioned. Why wouldnโ€™t you talk to Matty Knights?โ€