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.

Anderson could help manage a revamped structure which should include Dean Pay as coach to succeed Des Hasler, according to the former Newcastle star and leading commentator Matthew Johns.

The 65-year-old Anderson, who has 20 years’ experience as a coach, guided Canterbury for eight seasons in the 1990s, delivering the 1995 premiership.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s going to be Dean Pay. He’s the one the fans want (as coach),” Johns told Triple M Sydney on Thursday.

“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.

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

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

He also performed a mentor role at the Sydney Roosters, when Ricky Stuart was given his first gig as a NRL coach in 2002.

Canterbury are being urged to hastily make the coaching appointment after Hasler was sacked on Tuesday.

NRL assistant coaches Pay, Todd Payten, and Jim Dymock, as well as axed South Sydney coach Michael Maguire, are all considered potential candidates for the job.

Pay has expressed interest in the job.

“The chance to go back there and be a head coach really appeals to me. It would be like coming home,” he told News Corp Australia and Fairfax newspapers Thursday.