Chris Joel Heffernan (born 29 January 1979) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL).

AFL career

Known affectionately as "Heff", Chris began his career in 1997 with the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

. Heffernan had a brilliant year in 2000 when he played solid consistent football in the midfield and was part of the Bombers side that lost only one game for the entire season, winning the

AFL Grand Final The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victori ...

and Ansett Cup Final in the process. Heffernan was also rewarded with an appearance in the

International rules International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed ...

series in 2000. Heffernan also played in another

(albeit a losing one) in 2001. However, when Essendon ran into

salary cap In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Sever ...

issues at the end of the 2002 season, he was traded to the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

for a swap of first round draft selections. His trade to Melbourne only months after signing a three-year contract with Essendon, prompted the

AFL Players Association The AFL Players Association (AFL PA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players. The AFL PA promotes and protects its membe ...

to introduce the ''Heffernan Clause'' into the players standard

collective bargaining agreement A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...

, to prevent players from being traded within 12 months of signing a contract. Heffernan did not have the same spark at Melbourne. He finished the 2003 with a depressed fracture of his cheekbone and had a solid year in 2004 before getting suspended and missing the finals at the end of the season, but in 2005 his performances were average. At the end of 2005 Melbourne delisted Heffernan, but Essendon picked him up with the last pick in the 2006 AFL preseason draft. Heffernan played out the rest of his career with the Bombers, before announcing his retirement from AFL football on 2 October 2007 after being told that he was unlikely to play often under new coach

Matthew Knights Matthew Knights (born 5 October 1970) is an Australian rules football coach and former player who is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Geelong Football Club. Knights played in the midfield for the Richmond Football Club from ...

. In 2020, Heffernan released his Autobiography "Heffernan: More than meets the eye".

Personal life

After retiring from football he worked in New York for

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

for three years before returning to Melbourne to work for

Ernst and Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

. In 2011 he joined the Essendon Football Club board as a non-executive director.

Playing statistics

:Chris Heffernan's player profile at AFL Tables
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1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 3 , , 0 , , 0 , , 11 , , 9 , , 20 , , 4 , , 5 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.7 , , 3.0 , , 6.7 , , 1.3 , , 1.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 12 , , 3 , , 0 , , 71 , , 53 , , 124 , , 12 , , 31 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 5.9 , , 4.4 , , 10.3 , , 1.0 , , 2.6 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 22 , , 13 , , 4 , , 226 , , 119 , , 345 , , 60 , , 41 , , 0.6 , , 0.2 , , 10.3 , , 5.4 , , 15.7 , , 2.7 , , 1.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 21 , , 4 , , 6 , , 194 , , 115 , , 309 , , 54 , , 67 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 9.2 , , 5.5 , , 14.7 , , 2.6 , , 3.2 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 16 , , 6 , , 5 , , 110 , , 69 , , 179 , , 36 , , 33 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 6.9 , , 4.3 , , 11.2 , , 2.3 , , 2.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 23 , , 12 , , 4 , , 195 , , 101 , , 296 , , 58 , , 64 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 8.5 , , 4.4 , , 12.9 , , 2.5 , , 2.8 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 1 , , 20 , , 7 , , 4 , , 188 , , 115 , , 303 , , 60 , , 61 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 9.4 , , 5.8 , , 15.2 , , 3.0 , , 3.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 1 , , 18 , , 2 , , 4 , , 165 , , 119 , , 284 , , 44 , , 71 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 9.2 , , 6.6 , , 15.8 , , 2.4 , , 3.9 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 1 , , 9 , , 1 , , 3 , , 45 , , 35 , , 80 , , 20 , , 28 , , 0.1 , , 0.3 , , 5.0 , , 3.9 , , 8.9 , , 2.2 , , 3.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 19 , , 6 , , 4 , , 154 , , 147 , , 301 , , 66 , , 72 , , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 8.1 , , 7.7 , , 15.8 , , 3.5 , , 3.8 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 26 , , 7 , , 2 , , 0 , , 42 , , 42 , , 84 , , 16 , , 26 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 6.0 , , 6.0 , , 12.0 , , 2.3 , , 3.7 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 170 ! 56 ! 34 ! 1401 ! 924 ! 2325 ! 430 ! 499 ! 0.3 ! 0.2 ! 8.2 ! 5.4 ! 13.7 ! 2.5 ! 2.9

References

External links

*
Profile
at Essendonfc.com.au {{DEFAULTSORT:Heffernan, Chris 1979 births Living people Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club Premiership players Melbourne Football Club players Geelong Falcons players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Australia international rules football team players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players