Melissa Hickey (born 18 December 1984) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club and the Geelong Football Club in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football league for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the league ...

(AFLW). She served as Geelong captain in the club's first two AFL Women's seasons. She also played in the

Victorian Women's Football League The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of over 1,000 players. Th ...

VFL Women's VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victorian Women's Football L ...

for eleven seasons, representing the

St Albans Spurs The VU Western Spurs are a Women's Australian rules football club who compete in the Northern Football League (Australia) and the AFL Masters Victoria competition . Based in Footscray, they play home games at Henry Turner Oval. They were for ...

, and Geelong. In the VWFL/VFLW, Hickey won seven premierships, represented Victoria on three occasions and featured in the VFL Women's team of the year. Hickey represented Melbourne in the

exhibition games An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

staged prior to the creation of AFL Women's before being drafted by the club in 2016 as a marquee signing prior to the inaugural AFL Women's season. She was selected in the

inaugural In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugur ...

AFL Women's All-Australian team The AFL Women's All-Australian team is an all-star team of women's Australian rules footballers playing in the AFL Women's (AFLW), selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including interchange players and ...

in 2017, and also represented

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in the inaugural AFL Women's State of Origin match. Following the 2018 season, Hickey was announced as one of four Melbourne players to join Geelong ahead of the club's inaugural season in the AFL Women's.

Early life

Hickey was born in

Red Cliffs, Victoria Red Cliffs is a town in Victoria, Australia in the Sunraysia region. It is located on the Calder Highway, 16 km south of Mildura and 544 km north-west of Melbourne. At the , Red Cliffs had a population of 5,060. The main industry i ...

, which is sixteen kilometres south of

Mildura Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...

, and was raised in Mildura. She was born into a family with a strong history in Australian rules football; her great, great uncle, Pat Hickey, played in the inaugural round of the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

in 1897 for and won two premierships with the club, her grandfather's cousin was Geelong legend and Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee,

Reg Hickey Reginald Joseph Hickey (27 March 1906 – 13 December 1973) was an Australian rules footballer who was a player, the captain, the captain-coach, and the non-playing coach for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) ...

, she's related to former Port Adelaide captain and coach,

Matthew Primus Matthew Richard Primus (born 12 January 1975) is a former coach of the Port Adelaide Football Club and Australian rules footballer, captain and All-Australian ruckman. He was also previously an assistant coach at the Gold Coast Football Club. ...

, and her father, Peter Hickey, played an extensive career in Mildura. She played Australian rules football at a young age, including playing for her primary school, Irymple South Primary School. Without a pathway to playing football beyond the age of twelve for females, she turned to

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

. She attended high school at St Josephs College in Mildura.

State league and representative career

Hickey joined the

Darebin Falcons The Darebin Women's Sports Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is based in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and primarily notable for its Australian rules football team which competes in the highest-level Victorian state league – the VFL Women's (VF ...

in the

(VWFL) in 2009 and won two premierships in her first two years at the club, in addition to representing Victoria during the 2010

AFL Women's National Championships The AFL Women's National Championship was the premier national and international competition in Women's Australian rules football. The championship was held every year between 1992 and 2015. The tournament was organised by the sport's governing ...

. She changed clubs for the 2011 season and joined St Albans. She played the entire season until she tore her

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and th ...

(ACL) during the finals series and subsequently missed St Albans' grand final victory; despite the injury, her season was rewarded with All-Australian honours. During the year, she represented Victoria for the second consecutive year at the AFL Women's National Championships. Hickey was forced to miss the entire 2012 season due to her ACL injury and upon her return in 2013, she rejoined the Darebin Falcons and won her third VWFL premiership; in the grand final, she was awarded the Lisa Hardeman Medal as the best player on the ground. In the same year, she was recruited by the Melbourne Football Club with the eleventh selection in the 2013 women's draft and played in the inaugural women's AFL exhibition match against the at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of approximately 8000 people in a thirty-two point win. In the week prior to the inaugural women's AFL exhibition match, she represented Victoria in the 2013 AFL Women's National Championships, which included winning the championships and being named in the best players in the final. Hickey's sixth season in VWFL saw her play in her fourth VWFL premiership with Darebin and play thirteen matches in total for the year. She was also one of thirteen players retained by the Melbourne Football Club to play in the 2014 women's AFL exhibition match against the Western Bulldogs, in which the club won by forty-six points at

Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...

. She played every match for the 2015 VWFL season including Darebin's third consecutive premiership and her fifth overall. She was also one of six players retained by the Melbourne Football Club for the two exhibition matches against the Western Bulldogs in 2015. The club won both matches, the first by eight points and the second by four points. In the second match she received a reprimand for striking Western Bulldogs player, Jessica Wuestchner; although it was only an exhibition match, suspensions and reprimands carried over to the VWFL. After committing herself to a hard-working pre-season leading into the 2016 season, she reaped the rewards by playing in seventeen matches for the year and was named as the centre half-back in the VFL Women's team of the year. In addition to winning her sixth VWFL premiership and fourth consecutive with the Darebin Falcons. With the expansion of the women's exhibition series, she played in three matches for Melbourne in 2016, including the all-star match in September against the Western Bulldogs at

Whitten Oval Whitten Oval (also known as Victoria University Whitten Oval under a naming rights agreement) is a stadium in the inner-western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Barkly Street, West Footscray. It is the training and administr ...

as a showcase for the inaugural

(AFLW) season in 2017.

AFL Women's career

Melbourne (2017–2018)

In July 2016, Hickey was announced as one of two marquee player signings for the Melbourne Football Club, alongside

Daisy Pearce Daisy Pearce (born 27 May 1988) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition. Often regarded as the face of women's Australian rules football, Pearce has served as Melbourne c ...

. She was announced as the vice-captain of the club alongside Elise O'Dea in January 2017. She debuted in Melbourne's inaugural match against at

Casey Fields Casey Fields is a $30 million, 70 hectare multi-sports complex in the City of Casey at Cranbourne East a southeastern suburb of Melbourne. The complex is home to Australian rules football, cricket, netball, soccer, tennis, cycling, ...

in a fifteen-point loss, where she recorded thirteen disposals and three marks. In her second match, she was tasked with playing on marquee forward,

Moana Hope Moana Hope (born 14 February 1988) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played in the AFL Women's competition from 2017 to 2019, including 13 matches over two seasons at and a further seven matches over one season at . Eac ...

, and kept her goalless when playing on her in the nineteen point win at

IKON Park Princes Park (or Carlton Recreation Ground, currently known by its sponsored name Ikon Park) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the wider Princes Park in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. It is a historic venu ...

. The next week, she kicked her first AFLW goal in the fourteen point win over the Western Bulldogs at Whitten Oval, and she was named in Melbourne's best players by ''AFL Media'' and ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

''. At the end of the season, Hickey was listed in the 2017 All-Australian team. Hickey played in the opening six rounds of the

2018 AFL Women's season The 2018 AFL Women's season was the second season of the AFL Women's competition, the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 2 February until 24 March, and comprised a ...

before rupturing her ACL during the round six win against at

Ikon Park Princes Park (or Carlton Recreation Ground, currently known by its sponsored name Ikon Park) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the wider Princes Park in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. It is a historic venu ...

and subsequently missed the final round of the season.

Geelong (2019–2020)

In May 2018, prior to the 2018 AFL Women's signing period, Hickey was announced as one of four Melbourne players, along with

Richelle Cranston Richelle Cranston (born 28 September 1989) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Western Bulldogs football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She was drafted by Melbourne with their third selection and twenty-fourth overall in the 2016 ...

Erin Hoare Erin Hoare (born 17 July 1989) is an Australian netballer. At , Hoare is primarily a goal shooter, but can also play goal attack. Hoare is a member of the NSW Swifts and plays in the ANZ Championship. Netball career Beginning her career with ...

and Anna Teague, to join in the newly expanded competition. Hickey said that AFL head of football operations Steve Hocking, who had previously worked at Geelong as football manager for ten years, gave her "the best bit of advice I got out of all the people I spoke to", telling her to "put money out of the equation". She was officially signed by the club at the beginning of the trading and signing period on 11 May 2018. Hickey was named the club's inaugural captain in December. After missing the first two rounds of the 2019 season to fully recover from her knee reconstruction, during which Geelong

captain Rebecca Goring captained the team, Hickey made her Geelong debut in round 3. She later led Geelong in its first finals appearance the following month. At the end of the 2020 season, which was cut short as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Hickey announced her retirement.

Statistics

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2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

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2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

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Coaching

Hickey is currently the coach of the Vic Country team which participates in the AFLW Under 19 Championships, and was named in the All-Australian team as the coach in 2021.

Honours and achievements

Individual * Geelong captain: 2019–2020 *

* Victoria representative honours in AFL Women's State of Origin: 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hickey, Melissa Living people 1984 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Melbourne Football Club (AFLW) players Geelong Football Club (AFLW) players Australian people of German descent Australian people of English descent Australian people of Irish descent Australian people of Polish descent All-Australians (AFL Women's) Darebin Falcons players People from Mildura