Former Essendon coach James Hird has been backed to return to the AFL coaching scene from former Bombers captain Brendon Goddard and former coach Grant Thomas.

With Ben Rutten set to take over the Essendon coaching reigns full-time from John Worsfold in 2021, Goddard told the Herald Sunโ€™s Sam Landsberger that Hird could provide the perfect asset to Rutten going forward.

โ€œIf they actually think itโ€™s a good fit and thereโ€™s a role there for him, then Iโ€™ll be all for it โ€“ Iโ€™d love to see him back in football,โ€ Goddard said.

Goddard said that Hirdโ€™s care and empathy for the players was what made him stand out as a coach at his time with the Bombers.

โ€œHe was a great players coach. He took time out, particularly at the start when he wasnโ€™t distracted with all the other stuff,โ€

โ€œHe wanted to chat to them and understand life away from football and he was growing great relationships with his players.โ€

Thomas, who coached St. Kilda for six seasons in the 2000s, almost echoed the sentiments of Goddard about the idea of Hird playing a senior role to Rutten.

โ€œIf Benโ€™s the match-day coach and heโ€™s doing all that stuff and someone like a James Hird is running football, I think thatโ€™s a perfect scenario,โ€ he said.

โ€œThat probably lends itself more to the structure required in AFL football going forward rather than the quite vulnerable and susceptible and antiquated way that weโ€™ve currently gone about throwing quite inexperienced and unqualified people at senior coaching roles.โ€

Hird was sacked as senior coach towards the end of the 2015 season following a poor string of results and the infamous supplements saga, but Thomas is unsure what Hird has to answer to should he return.

โ€œI know heโ€™s been accused of a lot, but I donโ€™t know what heโ€™s guilty of,โ€ he said.

โ€œI think it would be enormous for James Hird and an opportunity for a door to be closed and a new phase of his football life to start.โ€