Mitchell Hannan (born 9 March 1994) is a professional

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 playing for the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

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), having been initially drafted 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, ...

. A

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, tall and weighing , Hannan has the ability to play as a forward and in the

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

. After failing to play in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

as a junior, he joined the St Bernard's Football Club in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division 4. In addition there ...

(VAFA) where he won a premiership and the best on ground in the 2015 VAFA Grand Final. The next year, he played with in 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 ...

(VFL) where he won his second premiership in as many years. His performances in the VAFA and VFL saw him recruited by the Melbourne Football Club in the

2016 AFL draft The 2016 AFL draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) could trade and recruit players following the completion of the 2016 AFL season. Additions to each club's playing list are not allowed ...

and he made his debut in the opening round of the 2017 season.

Pre-AFL career

Originally from

Gisborne, Victoria Gisborne () is a town in the Macedon Ranges, located about north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the largest town in the Macedon Ranges Shire, with a population of 13,963 as of June 2018. Gisborne is known for its country homest ...

, Hannan failed to make the

Calder Cannons The Calder Cannons is an Australian rules football club from Melbourne, Australia. The club competes in the NAB League, the Victorian Statewide Under-18s competition, and fields squads in the Under-15s, Under-16s and Under-18s. The club was forme ...

and

Bendigo Pioneers The Bendigo Pioneers is an Australian rules football team in the statewide Victorian under-18s league, the NAB League. Synopsis The Bendigo Pioneers is an Australian rules football team playing in NAB League since 1993 based in Bendigo, Victoria ...

sides in the

before leaving his junior club, Woodend, to join the St Bernard's Football Club in the premier division of the

(VAFA). He won a premiership with the club in 2015 and was named the best player on the ground in the grand final, winning the Jock Nelson Medal. He played four matches for in the

(VFL) in the same season, before playing solely for the club in the 2016 season. He rose to prominence during the season when he took a "ripping

specky A spectacular mark (also known as a specky, speckie, speccy, screamer or hanger) is a mark (or catch) in Australian rules football that typically involves a player jumping up on the back of another player. The spectacular mark has become a much ...

" during the opening round match against the , which was described as "

Gary Moorcroft Gary Moorcroft (born 16 April 1976) is a former Australian rules football player for Essendon and Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL). Moorcroft caught the attention of talent scouts by winning the Morrish Medal in 1994 whilst pl ...

like", whereby Moorcroft's 2001 mark is considered one of the greatest VFL/AFL marks in history and the best by

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

journalist, Dean Bilton. Playing fourteen matches for the season, his performances in the final month led to Footscray coach,

Ashley Hansen Ashley Hansen (born 3 March 1983) is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL), and has been an assistant coach in the AFL since 2013. Playing career Wes ...

, declaring he had the potential to be drafted to the AFL. He was pivotal in Footscray's semi final win against according to ''Maribyrnong Leader'' reporter, Tim Michell, where he kicked three goals in the final quarter and "came to life in the last term to inspire his side". He played in his second premiership in two years when Footscray defeated the by thirty-three 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 ...

in the VFL Grand Final.

AFL career

Hannan was recruited by the

with their first selection and forty-sixth overall in the 2016 national draft. A shoulder injury halted his pre-season and he was considered unlikely to make his debut early in the season. He did not feature in any matches during the

JLT Community Series The 2017 JLT Community Series was the Australian Football League (AFL) pre-season competition played before the 2017 home and away season. It featured 27 matches across 25 days, which began on 16 February 2017 and ended on 12 March 2017. For t ...

and despite this, he made his debut in the opening round of the 2017 season in the thirty point win against at

, in which he kicked two goals. He played the opening four matches before he was omitted for the round five match against at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

, and missed just the one match, returning for the thirty-eight point win against at Etihad Stadium. In his eighth AFL match, he kicked three goals and recorded fourteen disposals and five marks in the fourteen point loss to at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in round nine to be named in ''AFL Media's'' team of the week. He played every match until the round twenty game against at UNSW Canberra Oval, before returning for the last three matches of the year to finish with twenty games in total in his debut season. At the end of the season, he was the Melbourne nominee for 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 ...

(AFLPA) best first year player award and finished fourteenth in Melbourne's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

with 216 votes. At the conclusion of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season feature ...

, Hannan was traded to the . He made his debut for the Bulldogs in the Round 7 match against . He made the

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

in his first year, but was beaten by his old team, Melbourne by 74 points.

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of round 9, 2021'' , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, , 19 , , 20 , , 22 , , 10 , , 138 , , 110 , , 248 , , 49 , , 60 , , 1.1 , , 0.5 , , 6.9 , , 5.5 , , 12.4 , , 2.5 , , 3.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 United ...

, , 19 , , 15 , , 22 , , 16 , , 112 , , 61 , , 173 , , 50 , , 33 , , 1.5 , , 1.1 , , 7.5 , , 4.1 , , 11.5 , , 3.3 , , 2.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, , 19 , , 6 , , 4 , , 1 , , 32 , , 29 , , 61 , , 18 , , 8 , , 0.7 , , 0.2 , , 5.3 , , 4.8 , , 10.2 , , 3.0 , , 1.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, , 19 , , 9 , , 7 , , 3 , , 41 , , 31 , , 72 , , 21 , , 15 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 4.6 , , 3.4 , , 8.0 , , 2.3 , , 1.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, , 29 , , 3 , , 1 , , 2 , , 15 , , 7 , , 22 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0.3 , , 0.7 , , 5.0 , , 2.3 , , 7.3 , , 3.3 , , 2.0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 53 ! 56 ! 32 ! 338 ! 238 ! 576 ! 148 ! 122 ! 1.1 ! 0.6 ! 6.4 ! 4.5 ! 10.9 ! 2.8 ! 2.3 Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hannan, Mitch 1994 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Casey Demons players Western Bulldogs players