Just now, MrFreeze said:

The cherry on top for Hibbo was that booming left foot kick that could easily hit a target 60m away

And he didn't mind the odd Joe the Goose either!

His first goal for us against Richmond in 2017 was perfection and vintage Hibberd!

I know it’s been posted a bazillion times but it’s never not heartwarming…

16 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

I know it’s been posted a bazillion times but it’s never not heartwarming…

An underrated star of our premiership defense. I reckon we retired him too soon.

32 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

An underrated star of our premiership defense. I reckon we retired him too soon.

As a kid he always wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up and this is exactly what he is now. What an accomplished person he is.

3 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I heard that May is leading the reverse Coleman in goals conceded to key forwards.

McVee must be leading the reverse Coleman in goals conceded to small forwards. Moir another small who just gone to town on us (apologies to McVee if someone else had the job on him but I'm not enduring that game again to verify)

2 hours ago, doomsday dee said:

Yep,McVees fault

Moir played out of the goal square. He had mainly Tmac and a little bit of Disco

4 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

As a kid he always wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up and this is exactly what he is now. What an accomplished person he is.

unlike kornes, pig could handle the training and the discipline required

2 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

As a kid he always wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up and this is exactly what he is now. What an accomplished person he is.

Also kudos to him for overcoming not just the Essendon debacle after a late start to his career, but the tragic death of his brother.

He is a good man is Hibbo, and one of the very best pick ups we've ever had in terms of value for money.

My close Essendon supporting mate says he's the one player they lost from the supplement saga that really hurt to see go, and he was riding our bandwagon hard in 2021 because he wanted Hibbo to win a flag. Now he just laughs at how good Melksham has become... "of course Essendon didn't get the best out of him" he says.

Eagles forums showing McVee as an addition for 2026. Dees should give him 3 year deal and shutdown this gettable [censored]. We cannot afford to lose young talent.

Mcvee is more of a half back with his skill able to get us movement through the corridor or into forward 50.

AMW will assume small defender role in 2026.

8 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

As a kid he always wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up and this is exactly what he is now. What an accomplished person he is.

What a legend.

A player I always liked but, in hindsight, completely undervalued.

We've missed him very badly.

1 hour ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Eagles forums showing McVee as an addition for 2026. Dees should give him 3 year deal and shutdown this gettable [censored]. We cannot afford to lose young talent.

Mcvee is more of a half back with his skill able to get us movement through the corridor or into forward 50.

AMW will assume small defender role in 2026.

I still think he'll stay if the stories are on here are true that he has a local girl and is enjoying his time in Melbourne.

I have wondered if the Eagles have approached us and potentially looked at bringing him back closer to home. Maybe Judd's management team are wanting an increase in term or value but we've been made a decent offer for his services.

If we got the Eagles second round pick (most likely early 20's) would you take it? Potentially frees up say another $400k - $500k to land a decent midfielder via free agency whilst bringing end some more relatively high end talent.

I'm a no personally as the old saying goes, 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' but it would be interesting to see what he's worth.

2 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

As a kid he always wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up and this is exactly what he is now. What an accomplished person he is.

My brother is in the MFB - wonder if he knows him. I’ll ask. Or is he ARFF?

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by Superunknown

8 minutes ago, Deeko2 said:

I still think he'll stay if the stories are on here are true that he has a local girl and is enjoying his time in Melbourne.

I have wondered if the Eagles have approached us and potentially looked at bringing him back closer to home. Maybe Judd's management team are wanting an increase in term or value but we've been made a decent offer for his services.

If we got the Eagles second round pick (most likely early 20's) would you take it? Potentially frees up say another $400k - $500k to land a decent midfielder via free agency whilst bringing end some more relatively high end talent.

I'm a no personally as the old saying goes, 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' but it would be interesting to see what he's worth.

Unless WC were willing to pay heavily over, I'd be doing all we can to retain McVee. I've posted this a few times before, but he's exactly the type of player we're missing more of. Good disposal by foot and hand, can navigate traffic and is good at the ground ball. Fairly good mark too - although that's probably not his strongest area with reference to his ability in the air. We'd be going backwards by losing him, at least in the short-term.

4 minutes ago, Superunknown said:

My brother is in the MFB - wonder if he knows him. I’ll ask. Or is he ARFF?

I don’t know. I assume it’s the MFB.

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Eagles forums showing McVee as an addition for 2026. Dees should give him 3 year deal and shutdown this gettable [censored]. We cannot afford to lose young talent.

Mcvee is more of a half back with his skill able to get us movement through the corridor or into forward 50.

AMW will assume small defender role in 2026.

Wishful thinking.

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Eagles forums showing McVee as an addition for 2026. Dees should give him 3 year deal and shutdown this gettable [censored]. We cannot afford to lose young talent.

Mcvee is more of a half back with his skill able to get us movement through the corridor or into forward 50.

AMW will assume small defender role in 2026.

When we recruited him my Essendon supporting mate said ‘you’re going to love him’. And he wasn’t wrong

On 10/07/2025 at 09:46, SPC said:

I’m on Juddys side, he should be a rebounding half back and not a defender. He and Bowey would compliment each other. So question is, who do we have to play the lock down small defender role? Kolt, Woey, Viney or Salo? AMW was a lock, but we won’t see him for a while.

I see Starcevich is contemplating a move, could he be a piece of the puzzle we need.

Juddys signature is a must!!

Kolt & Woey haha, don’t over estimate our list, VFL about their standard at the moment

17 minutes ago, deegirl said:

When we recruited him my Essendon supporting mate said ‘you’re going to love him’. And he wasn’t wrong

Hibbo's first season with us in 2017 after he missed the first 4-5 games was a good as any Melbourne defender's since the turn of the century.

The fact that he made the final AA team after missing the first month of games was a real credit to how good his season was.

4 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

I know it’s been posted a bazillion times but it’s never not heartwarming…

I miss the days when we were top of the mountain. It’s such a traversty how far we have fallen.

9 hours ago, jackaub said:

yes but can any of them play footy?

On 11/07/2025 at 17:28, Redleg said:

Don't forget Kalani has two younger brothers and there are some more father sons possibly coming along like Flash's son, the President's son Oliver, Archie son of Peter, Tex Robertson son of the ground announcer, Tigga son of Trapper, Max son of Jnr's brother and others.

Tex Robertson is an excellent runner, but definitely on the small side. He plays in Beaumaris's Under 15s Div 1 SMJFL side that loses about 1 game every three years, but is maybe the 10th best player in that side. His Dad is assistant coach, Justin Plapp coaches. I'm pretty sure he hasn't been playing in the SMJFL rep teams.

I've seen Oliver Green play a couple of times in recent years for East Brighton in the same division. He didn't stand out initially, but definitely had taken a step forward when I saw him earlier this year. He did play in the SMJFL Div 1 rep team this year.

Tigga Johnstone plays for Bonbeach in the Southern League, but I haven't seen him play (have seen him play cricket). He is on the small side as well.

14 minutes ago, poita said:

Tex Robertson is an excellent runner, but definitely on the small side. He plays in Beaumaris's Under 15s Div 1 SMJFL side that loses about 1 game every three years, but is maybe the 10th best player in that side. His Dad is assistant coach, Justin Plapp coaches. I'm pretty sure he hasn't been playing in the SMJFL rep teams.

I've seen Oliver Green play a couple of times in recent years for East Brighton in the same division. He didn't stand out initially, but definitely had taken a step forward when I saw him earlier this year. He did play in the SMJFL Div 1 rep team this year.

Tigga Johnstone plays for Bonbeach in the Southern League, but I haven't seen him play (have seen him play cricket). He is on the small side as well.

Thanks poita - they are all probably due for their growth spurt over the next 12 months or so, a lot of boys end up taller than their fathers ,( not always but as a rule of thumb). Let’s hope that we can garner a steady flow of F/S’s similar to the Cats, Blues and Lions.👍😁

3 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

I miss the days when we were top of the mountain. It’s such a traversty how far we have fallen.

It happens, both in life and in sport. Regression to the mean and all that.

(Unless you're Geelong and the Swans, with a little help from the AFL one way or another.)

7 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

My close Essendon supporting mate says he's the one player they lost from the supplement saga that really hurt to see go, and he was riding our bandwagon hard in 2021 because he wanted Hibbo to win a flag. Now he just laughs at how good Melksham has become... "of course Essendon didn't get the best out of him" he says

Recall my Essendon supporting mate saying that Melksham was 'just a player'. He's had a few ups and downs, but he's never been 'just a player' in the time we've had him. Always had that bit of X factor and rare footy brain about him as far as I'm concerned.

8 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

An underrated star of our premiership defense. I reckon we retired him too soon.

Don't think Pig Dog was underrated really. I think the club put alot of priority into managing him to let him recover from injury properly and kept him on ice for the back end of season, precisely because they rated his value to our defence in big finals so highly.

Also, did we really retire him or was it more of his call wanting to go out on a high and move onto other things in life?