EXTENSIVE : After making off-season adjustments to the football department at Kardinia Park, Geelong assistant
coach Nigel Lappin will oversee the Cats’ development program in 2024.
After Matt Egan left to work as coaching and performance manager for the Western Bulldogs during the off-season,
the 47-year-old took over in the position.
After concluding his 279-game, Hall of Fame career in Brisbane, where he was a key player in the team’s three-peat
under Leigh Matthews, Lappin left for Geelong at the end of 2008.
During his 15 seasons at the Cats, the four-time All-Australian has worked in development and as a midfield coach.
As a coach, he has three premierships under his belt: 2009, 2011 and 2022. Lappin will be in charge of a department
that comprises development coach Aaron Black and VFL coach Mark Corrigan in his role as head of development at
GMHBA Stadium.
After Simon Lloyd moved to general manager of commercial projects, Andrew Mackie, the new head of football at
Geelong, was busy in his first off-season in the position. He will now collaborate more closely with CEO Steve
Hocking across the hall.
After Shaun Grigg left for Gold Coast after four seasons at GMHBA Stadium, the Cats enticed two highly regarded
assistant coaches, James Rahilly and Steven King, back to the team to work under two-time premiership coach Chris
Scott. After spending three seasons coaching the Crows’ front line in Adelaide, where he was named the 2023 AFL
Coaches Association assistant coach of the year, Rahilly, a life member, returned to Geelong.
After a decade in the Western Bulldogs’ football department and two years as Stuart Dew’s senior assistant at Gold
Coast, the 2007 premiership ruckman King was then hired by the Cats as an assistant coach.
The Cats have promoted salary cap specialist Simon Murphy to head of football projects and total player payments,
following Brett Johnson’s promotion to assistant general manager at the end of the previous season. Mackie is
combining his roles as head of football and list manager, following in the footsteps of Jason McCartney at Greater
Western Sydney and Graham Wright at Collingwood.
At the end of 2018, Murphy relocated from the AFL headquarters to Geelong, where over the course of the previous
five years, he has advanced up the ranks in the football operations and list management departments.
With effect from 2023, Shane O’Bree has given up his gameday bench role and moved full-time into the recruiting
staff alongside Stephen Wells and Liam Woodland, leaving the coaching department.
Shaun Higgins, a former midfielder-forward for Geelong, the Western Bulldogs, and North Melbourne, has taken
O’Bree’s position in a part-time capacity as he returns to the team where he concluded his 260-game career.
After the Melbourne premiership captain was named West Coast’s AFLW senior coach in December, Geelong lost
AFLW legend Daisy Pearce as its AFL development coach.
As part of the AFL’s women’s coaching acceleration program, which is intended to support and expedite the
development of female coaches and for which the AFL provides soft cap exemptions and co-funds, Pearce signed a
four-year contract with the Cats in February of last year. Pearce has not yet been replaced by a Cat. Geelong will
intensify its AFL Community Series preparations on February 22 when they play Carlton in a practice match at Ikon
Park, then on March 1, they host Essendon at GMHBA Stadium.
