Hunt, 59, coached the Demons in their inaugural season in the Warrnambool and District league in 2003 and was president when the club won its first premiership in 2008.

Originally from Simpson,  Hunt played over 130 games with Cobden and coached the Bombers in 1995-96. He coached Heytesbury to four premierships, played 250 games and was president when the club won the 2002 flag, the year before merging with Timboon.

Hunt said the time was right for him to get back involved in coaching.

"I've got a bit of time freed up now and I am excited about doing my bit for the club," Hunt said.

"I will be working hard to retain the players we have and make sure the club is a place where people want to be a part of. I am confident we will get four or five players coming back to the club and I think there is 20 per cent improvement in the group we have.

“My plan is to be patient, if the players we have are focused, listen and want to achieve then nothing can stop us getting to where we want to go. We want the whole town to get behind us and get everyone in this together”

Football may have changed dramatically since Hunt last coached, but he is confident the game has not gone past him.

“I will research a lot of modern coaching methods and oversee training and putting our game plan in place,” Hunt said.

“I will have people around me and trust them to do the roles the team needs, once we get into our pre-season those leaders will identify themselves, I won’t have to go looking, they will emerge which will be exciting.

“We will do a lot of work with the whiteboard so blokes understand the role they have to play.”

Hunt replaces 2015 co-coaches Matthew Whitehead and Norm Vogels.