THE AFL has extended an olive branch to James Hird by inviting him to award the Norm Smith medal to this year’s winner on Grand Final day.

The former Essendon star resigned as senior coach in late 2015 after taking on the role in 2011. He led the club through the drugs saga but has been out of football since then.

But despite a difficult relationship with the league Hird is set to be a central figure on footy’s biggest day.

The Herald Sun reports that Hird has accepted the honour.

Round 18

“If they (have asked me), I would love to do it,” Hird told the Herald Sun from Europe.

“It would just be good to be out there on Grand Final day. It’s obviously the best day in the footy calendar, so it would be a nice experience.”

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Hird’s invitation follows the recent tradition of inviting prior winners to hand out the medal. Last year, 1999 Norm Smith winner Shannon Grant presented the award to Jason Johannisen.

Before that, Greg Williams (1995), Glenn Archer (1996) and Andrew McLeod (1997/1998) gave out the award (in chronological order) to Brian Lake, Luke Hodge and Cyril Rioli respectively.

Previous winners, such as Lake, have been unaware of the system of following the order of winners in the 1990s.

An AFL spokesman confirmed the league’s invitation.

“Since 2004, the AFL has been inviting previous medallists to present the medal, starting with Wayne Harmes, who had not had the opportunity to present the Norm Smith Medal. Working through them in year order, James is the next eligible medallist,” he said.

The 2017 Grand Final will take place on September 30.

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