Matthew Egan (born 10 July 1983) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Kardinia Park in South Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). He served as interim senior coach at the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

after the resignation of James Hird for the final three rounds of the 2015 season. He served as head of development at the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

from September 2016 until 2020.

AFL career

Egan took up football in his late teens after having been a promising junior

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player, having once been ranked fifth for juniors in Victoria. As a sentiment to this he is known for his trademark "Forehand punch" as he swings it like a tennis Forehand. Geelong drafted him with their final pick in the 2004 National Draft, after he had played in the VFL with the reserves and was named Geelong's best first-year player for

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. He was a tall centre half-back, who often shut down some of the opposition's top forwards, including Nick Riewoldt, Barry Hall,

Matthew Lloyd Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's AFL's honours include ...

, Fraser Gehrig, Jonathan Brown, Matthew Pavlich and Quinten Lynch amongst others. Egan had a spectacular third season in the AFL, playing 22 matches, with 257 disposals, achieving several honours such as

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

selection, and celebrated his 50th AFL game with a win over the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

, even though he did only manage nine disposals. Round 14 saw a 50-point win over Essendon, with 12 disposals, and receiving an Army Award nomination for a courageous goal-saving, diving smother. He was declared the round's winner with 44% of the public vote, but ultimately lost out in the selection of the final shortlist of the year's weekly winners. Against the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

in Round 22, Egan fractured the

navicular bone The navicular bone is a small bone found in the feet of most mammals. Human anatomy The navicular bone in humans is one of the tarsus (skeleton), tarsal bones, found in the foot. Its name derives from the human bone's resemblance to a small ...

in his right foot during a marking contest with Jonathan Brown, requiring emergency surgery to insert screws into his foot. This injury saw Egan forced out of the finals, missing both the AFL and VFL's victorious premiership sides. Egan capped off an excellent season with selection in the 2007 All-Australian Team as the centre half-back in a squad that contained nine Geelong players. He was also named Geelong's Best Clubman for

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. In November 2008, Geelong admitted it was unlikely that Egan would play AFL again, as a result of the foot injury he sustained in 2007. On 26 August 2009, Geelong announced that they would delist Egan, but that they remained hopeful he would play again in the AFL and they also retired the number 19 for season 2010 in honour of Egan. He worked that year as an assistant coach at the Cats VFL team and continued to work for the club as an assistant in 2010.

Statistics

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, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 15 , , 0 , , 1 , , 67 , , 65 , , 132 , , 49 , , 8 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 4.5 , , 4.3 , , 8.8 , , 3.3 , , 0.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 22 , , 1 , , 0 , , 102 , , 130 , , 232 , , 82 , , 31 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 4.6 , , 5.9 , , 10.5 , , 3.7 , , 1.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 22 , , 0 , , 0 , , 115 , , 142 , , 257 , , 80 , , 29 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 5.2 , , 6.5 , , 11.7 , , 3.6 , , 1.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

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2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 19 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 59 ! 1 ! 1 ! 284 ! 337 ! 621 ! 211 ! 68 ! 0.0 ! 0.0 ! 4.8 ! 5.7 ! 10.5 ! 3.6 ! 1.2

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, Matthew 1983 births Living people Geelong Football Club players Essendon Football Club coaches All-Australians (AFL) Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 21st-century Australian sportsmen