Australia's top female footballer Daisy Pearce has also been signed by the Demons in a full-time role that has seen her resign as a midwife, initially to join Melbourne's commercial team.

As a player development and welfare coach, Cowan follows the path of Peta Searle who almost abandoned her dream to coach at the elite level before St Kilda recruited her in mid-2014.

Melbourne wanted to employ Cowan full-time this season but she will initially work four days a fortnight, commuting from Perth. Her husband has a senior position in mining procurement and the couple has two children under seven.

Though ultimately part of Paul Roos' wider team, Cowan will work most closely with player development head Andrew Nichol and the club's welfare boss Brendan McCartney.

Appointed chiefly to mentor Melbourne's first- and second-year players, it's anticipated Cowan will also have regular match-day roles with the Demons and VFL affiliate Casey on the weekends she is in Melbourne. This will most likely see her sitting in a box with young players and reinforcing strategies and tactics.

Melbourne will cover the costs of Cowan's fortnightly travel and accommodation.

"We've encouraged them both very clearly to have a look at everything and to have an open mind about where this might take them within the industry as a whole," Melbourne chief executive Peter Jackson told Fairfax Media.

The innermost circle of Melbourne's coaching panel, headed by Roos for one last season before he officially passes the baton to Simon Goodwin, came to know Cowan through short but intense stints of exposure to the club in recent years.

The introduction came through the club's investment in women's football, an area Melbourne is committed to growing.

"What we've seen is how Michelle was able to build a culture within a group … the way that she communicated with her players and with her staff, her ability to take a group and lead them on a journey and, in particular, develop the players as well ," football operations boss Josh Mahoney said.

"Couple that with her history of working with WAFL teams at assistant coach level, the success she's had in WA in senior and junior football. It was a skill set that was really attractive to us.

"It's going to begin as a part-time role this season and hopefully we can expand on that moving forward."

Melbourne came to know Pearce – highly skilled as an athlete and an exceptionally articulate football ambassador - via the same means as Cowan.

Now earmarked by the likes of experienced football administrator Jackson as a figure with boundless leadership potential, the 27-year-old began work at Melbourne on Wednesday in a role the club is terming a graduate traineeship.

"We haven't appointed her because she's a good footballer. We've appointed her because we've seen her talent and drive, and her leadership capabilities," Jackson said.

"I think it's the sort of young talent that we need to nurture and develop for the future in this industry."

With distinguished coaching backgrounds already, both Cowan and St Kilda's Searle have previously stated their desires to transfer their skills to equivalent posts in an AFL club setting.

Cowan has been an assistant coach in the West Australian Football League since 2012 and Searle got her major break from ex-AFL coach Gary Ayres in the Victorian Football League where she worked as an assistant.

At AFL level the entry point for Cowan and Searle has been a tier under the formal team of assistants working for Roos at Melbourne and Alan Richardson at St Kilda. But the scope for promotion is clearly there and Searle's appetite to progress has only been enhanced by her experiences to date in the AFL setting.

Searle and Cowan have both been senior coaches for the women's exhibition matches staged by the AFL between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs which, from 2017, will transform into a code-changing women's league with more AFL clubs fielding sides.

MICHELLE COWAN

. Assistant coach, WAFL senior and reserves teams South Fremantle and West Perth since 2012.

. Senior coach, WA youth girls and women's teams.

. Head coach, Melbourne's women AFL team (2013-15).

. Manager of her own national training company.

. Former state cricketer and golfer.

. First woman to coach Australian football at state level (2004).

. WA-based scout and match analyst for Geelong 2000-01 (voluntary).

DAISY PEARCE

. Eight-time premiership player for Darebin Falcons in the Victorian Women's Football League.

. Six-time winner of Helen Lambert medal (VWFL best player award).

. Captain Darebin Falcons since 2008.

. No.1 pick in inaugural AFL women's draft, 2013.

. Captain, Melbourne AFL team 2013-2015.

. Winner, Melbourne's inaugural best women's player award, 2015

. Former midwife.