Canterbury are being urged to engage experienced NRL mentor and former Bulldogs coach Chris Anderson to oversee their football department in a role similar to Phil Gould’s at Penrith.

The Bulldogs have vowed to begin searching immediately for a new coach, with former player and Canberra assistant Dean Pay already putting his hand up.

North Queensland assistant Todd Payten has also reaffirmed his wish to coach one day in the NRL, while former Bulldog Jim Dymock has previously pleaded his case.

But if any unheralded coach such as Pay gets the job, they should do so under Anderson’s watch, according to former Newcastle star and broadcaster Matthew Johns.

“I would have serious consideration to bring Chris Anderson back into the fold at the Bulldogs just to be involved with the team behind the scenes and to guide Dean Pay,” Johns told Triple M Sydney on Thursday.

“Chris Anderson … he’s one of the most-loved coaches out there. He understands how to give the team back to the players.”

Johns was coached by Anderson in 2002 at Cronulla and had long been an admirer of his work.

Anderson is also seemingly open to the prospect of joining a club in a key advisory role, after being open to helping the struggling Gold Coast when quizzed about it earlier this month.

It would also quell suggestions the Bulldogs have lost their traditional culture, after former players Reni Maitua and Willie Mason hit out this week at the idea of bringing in former South Sydney boss Michael Maguire.

Anderson played 230 games for the Bulldogs from 1971-84, and was on the wing in their 1980 grand-final victory.

The Bulldogs’ life member was voted into their 70-year team of champions in 2004.

The suggestion has parallels with former NSW coach Gould’s 2011 appointment as football general manager at the Panthers, when he was given carte blanche to reform the club’s then-struggling football department.

Payten said on Thursday morning he was yet to hear from the Bulldogs about filling the potential role.

“I’ve been around long enough to know if they are genuine in their interest, they will come to me. And that’s something that hasn’t happened yet,” he said.

“I have an ambition to be a head coach, when that happens. I’m not sure when that will happen.”

Pay has also expressed interest in the job after he last playing for Canterbury in the 1995 grand final.