MELBOURNE has appointed Matthew Egan as the Demons' new head of development.

Egan, 33, resigned from his role as Essendon head of development and VFL coach in September to seek further opportunities elsewhere and he has landed at the Demons under new coach Simon Goodwin, who he previously worked with at the Bombers. 

Egan started his coaching career in a development role with Geelong in 2009 after his 59-game playing career with the Cats was cut short by a foot injury.

He joined the Bombers as an assistant coach in 2012 and was the interim coach for the last three games in 2015, following James Hird's sacking, before taking on a role as the VFL coach and head of development in 2016. 

Egan will take over as Melbourne's head of development from Brendan McCartney, who will move into a newly created role of player/coach performance manager. 

Egan said he was excited to once again work with both Goodwin and McCartney.

"It'll be similar to what Brendan McCartney did and I'll be helping out with the development and working closely with the younger players with their footy and their life," Egan told melbournefc.com.au. 



"I'm really excited. After five years at Essendon I felt like I was ready for a change and I wanted to work with some really good people and a young list and I ended up here.

"I had a really good relationship with 'Goody' (Goodwin) at Essendon and we went through a few tough years at Essendon, so we've built a strong relationship there. We used to spend a lot of time together and I'm really excited to be on the journey with him.

"'Macca' (McCartney) was probably the biggest influence in my playing career – he was my line coach and I got on really well with him. He was someone that invested a lot of time into me as a player and person.

"I'm not only excited about working with them, but also a lot of people I haven't worked with, but have heard a lot of good things about."

Egan said the time was right to move on from Essendon after serving three different roles in five seasons and he was ready to take on the next challenge in a new environment.