MELBOURNE has appointed former player Shannon Byrnes as its welfare and development coach.

Byrnes, a dual Geelong premiership player, played 131 AFL matches (108 with the Cats from 2004-12 and 23 with Melbourne from 2013-14), said he was excited about his new pathway in the game.  

“I’m rapt to get the opportunity to stay at the club that gave me my second chance and I’m looking forward to working with the younger players to help them develop and improve us as a footy club,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“I have got a good rapport with the playing group having played with them the last two years. I’ve been preparing myself for life after football for some time now with my coaching roles at both the Oakleigh Chargers and at Xavier College.

“Helping younger players develop is something I’m really passionate about and this role provides me with the perfect starting point for the second phase of my career.”

Manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said Byrnes ticked all the boxes for what the club was after.

“The role that we were looking to fill had a number of different components to it – it involved welfare, working with the first and second-year players, development coaching and also playing at Casey and being a line coach,” he said.

“As we were going through potential candidates, Shannon was seen as our number one candidate for this role. He’s recently retired and has been developing his coaching skills over the past two years, working with TAC Cup sides and schools.

“His natural personality fits the role very well and we thought it was a great fit for him to move straight out of playing and into this role. It’ll be a part-time role and he’ll be working with [player development manager] Andrew Nichol.”

Mahoney said the addition of Byrnes further strengthens Melbourne and Casey’s partnership.  

“As previously stated, our focus areas were to bolster our development and welfare areas and we believe with Shannon moving into this role that we are very well resourced in this area,” he said.

“Shannon will provide a great conduit between the two clubs and assist the Melbourne and Casey players out on the field.

“What we’re trying to do is build Casey as close to Melbourne as possible and having Byrnesy in this role will help that.

“With Plappy (Justin Plapp) going full-time as coach of Casey and Brad Miller being a line coach at Casey, Shannon now enhances that alignment.”