IF SHANNON Grant ever wants to coach at AFL level, he must put his head down and hope his off-field reputation improves over time.

That's the advice of Essendon coach Matthew Knights, whose club is aligned to Grant's Bendigo Bombers in the VFL.

Grant, coach of the Bombers, has been stood down from match-day duties for two weeks after being arrested by police for drunkenness.

Police locked up the former Sydney Swans and North Melbourne star in Bendigo for four hours on Saturday night but later released him without charge.

Grant is known to have aspirations to coach at the highest level.

This year - his first in charge of Bendigo - he has guided the club to fourth on the ladder after six rounds, separated from top spot only by percentage.

However Knights said it was "hard to say" what damage his drunken night out might have done to his future prospects.

"If it comes to the crunch and Shannon's ever in that position and he goes to the board and presents, well that's going to be their call," Knights said on Tuesday morning.

"Time does heal, so Shannon's got to get back and coach well now and work well with our young players and work well at the Bendigo end and just see what goes."

Knights said he and Essendon football manager Paul Hamilton had spoken briefly to Grant, but were eager to move on.

"He's really remorseful about what occurred and he understands his role as a leader at the club, leading our young men," Knights said.

"So you know he's going to do his very best to go from here and just work hard and give back to the club which has given him an opportunity."

Grant will watch the VFL Bombers' games, with Essendon to identify his temporary replacement.

"That'll be a mix of Essendon assistants, plus Hayden Skipworth will probably come to prominence a little bit more in the coaching aspect in the next two weeks," Knights said.

"So that's the way we'll cover off in the next two games, and then Shannon will get going after that.

"So we've dealt with it, we're going to move on pretty quickly and focus on the Western Bulldogs and the Casey Scorpions for both teams this week."