The Collingwood Football Club announced today that athlete academy director Alan Richardson is leaving the club to take up a coaching role at the Essendon Football Club.

Collingwood CEO Gary Pert said: “Three years ago Alan was asked to set up our athlete development academy, which is now fully established and operational, and is widely considered a benchmark program in the industry.

“The Collingwood Football Club would like to thank Alan for his three-year contribution and we support and were always aware that Alan was intending on exploring a career path into a more traditional coaching role, once our academy was established.”

Collingwood will immediately start a search for new athlete academy director.