Matthew Egan (born 10 July 1983) is a former
Australian rules footballer who played for the
Geelong Football Club in the
Australian Football League (AFL). He served as interim senior coach at the
Essendon Football Club after the resignation of
James Hird
James Albert Hird (born 4 February 1973) is a former professional Australian rules football player and past senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Hird played as a midfielder and half-forward, but ...
for the final three rounds of the
2015 season.
He served as head of development at the
Melbourne Football Club 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 racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player, having once been ranked fifth for juniors in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. 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.
He was a tall
centre half-back, who often shut down some of the opposition's top forwards, including
Nick Riewoldt
Nicholas Fredrick Riewoldt ( ; born 17 October 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was the first draft selection in the 2000 AFL draft. He was the ...
,
Barry Hall
Barry Hall (born 8 February 1977) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club, Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is considered to be one of the be ...
,
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
Fraser Gehrig (born 3 March 1976) is a retired Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL) .
Gehrig was a versatile player during his AFL career, begi ...
,
Jonathan Brown,
Matthew Pavlich
Matthew Pavlich (born 31 December 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
A versatile player, Pavlich is widely regarded as one of the premi ...
and
Quinten Lynch
Quinten Peter Lynch (born 24 January 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Collingwood Football Club and the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally from Grass Patch, a rural farming co ...
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 footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...
selection, and celebrated his 50th AFL game with a win over the
Sydney Swans, even though he did only manage nine disposals.
Round 14 saw a 50-point win over
Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
* Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
* Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League
United Ki ...
, 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 is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...
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 tarsal bones, found in the foot. Its name derives from the human bone's resemblance to a small boat, caused by th ...
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.
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
:
, -
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2005
, 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
, 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" ,
2007
, 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
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 19 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2009
, 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)