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,” Watson told SEN Breakfast.
“I really admire what he has done. He’s gone back into coaching; he coached his own team at Geelong in the VFL for a while, he’s on the coaching panel there, he would have learned a lot about the defensive mechanisms of coaching and how that underpins a team.
“He would have to be a much better coach second time around … and his name never gets mentioned. Why wouldn’t you talk to Matty Knights?”