FORMER Essendon champion Tim Watson says Leigh Matthews should return as coach of the Brisbane Lions to help stabilise the battling club.

Watson believes Brisbane’s football director and deputy chairman can rebuild the Lions from the ground up, drawing parallels to the work Paul Roos has done at Melbourne.

“I think that Leigh would be someone that would be perfectly capable to orchestrate something like that,” Watson said.

“This club needs to be fixed on a number of levels.

“This is not just about a quick fix for a coach ... they need extra players, I think they’ll get (a priority pick).

Watson put his bold plan to Matthews, a respected and revered figure in Queensland, on the weekend and got “nothing back from him”.

“I would favour putting Leigh Matthews, if he was prepared to do the job, back in as coach of the Brisbane Lions and make him more of a manager/coach type person and then allow him then to hand pick his own team of assistant coaches,” Watson told SEN.

“If he had the passion to do it, if he was excited at all about it, I don’t think he would coach the team in a traditional sense but I think he’s somebody who is prepared to allow himself to be a manager of a football club.”

Matthews piloted Brisbane to three flags before resigning at the end of the 2008 season.

“He’s not somebody who will be so fixed on the way he coached (in 2008) to think OK, that’s the style that I have to coach with,” Watson said.

“He’s somebody who would understand (and) does understand the game has changed.”

Brisbane is expected to make a decision on Justin Leppitsch at the end of the season.