Dyson Heppell (born 14 May 1992) 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

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 ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, 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 ...

(AFL). Heppell won the AFL Rising Star award in his first season in 2011, and won a

Crichton Medal The Crichton Medal is the name given to the best and fairest award for the Australian rules football team the Essendon Football Club. The naming of the award is in honour of Wally Crichton, a former administrator for Essendon (who was a committ ...

and

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

selection in 2014. He has served as Essendon captain since the 2017 season.

Early life

Heppell participated in the Auskick program at Leongatha. He began playing football with

Leongatha Football Club The Leongatha Football Club, nicknamed the ''Parrots'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in the town of Leongatha, Victoria. The club teams currently compete in the Gippsland League. Club history ;Leongatha Football Club ...

, and played for Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Named as Gippsland's captain for the 2010 season, Heppell also played for the Victorian Country side at the

2010 AFL Under 18 Championships The 2010 NAB AFL Under 18 Championships was the 15th edition of the AFL Under 18 Championships. Eight teams competed in the championships: Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia and Western Australia in Division 1, and New South Wales/Australian ...

, where he was named in the All-Australian team. At 189 cm, he played as a "line-breaking defender" for the first half of the 2010 season, before moving into the midfield for the second half of the season. Heppell finished strongly in the

Morrish Medal The Morrish Medal is an Australian rules football award. Formerly awarded to the best and fairest player in the VFL Under-19 competition (known as the Thirds prior to 1959), since 1992 the award has been given to the best player in the Victorian ...

count, which is awarded to the

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 ...

player in the TAC Cup regular season, eventually tying for the award with Jackson Sketcher of the

Sandringham Dragons The Sandringham Dragons are an Australian rules football club playing in the NAB League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria, Australia. They are based at the Trevor Barker Oval in Sandringham, Victoria, representing the southern ...

, after achieving the maximum votes possible from rounds 13 to 17. Despite finishing the regular season in sixth place on the ladder, both Gippsland and Heppell had a good finals series. He accumulated 36 disposals in an elimination final victory and was named best on ground in the preliminary final win to qualify for the TAC Cup Grand Final. In a stark contrast to the rest of his season, Heppell had a relatively poor game in the grand final, gathering only 20 touches, as the Power were outclassed by the Calder Cannons by 56 points.

AFL career

Despite his performance in the grand final, Heppell was an impressive performer at the AFL draft camp, and was touted by many as being a potential top five draft pick in the 2010 national draft, with some even claiming he could go as high as top three. Most speculation suggested that the Brisbane Lions would select Heppell with pick five, who with his "silky" skills and raking left foot, modelled his style on the Lions' own

Josh Drummond Josh Drummond (born 19 April 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League who is currently serving as the defensive coach of the Gold Coast Football Club. He was a rebounding defender and occasional wingman, w ...

. In the week before the draft, however, a rumour, which Heppell denied, began circulating that he was suffering from groin problems. Due to this,

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

, which had the eighth selection, became interested that he might fall to their pick, and Heppell spoke to newly appointed coach, James Hird, days before the draft. Hird, who said he had been interested in Heppell for months, believed that Heppell would be selected well before Essendon had the chance to draft him, but when Heppell did slide back due to the groin concerns, Essendon selected him ahead of midfielders Dion Prestia and

Shaun Atley Shaun Atley (born 13 September 1992) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally from Rochester, Atley was taken with draft pick #17 ...

. Heppell, who supported the Bombers as a child and had "idolised" Hird while growing up, said that getting drafted by Essendon was "like a dream". Heppell received the first Rising Star nomination for 2011 after recording 20 possessions in his debut AFL match, against the Western Bulldogs in round 1. In his first season, he played every match of the home and away season and was described as a major contributor in helping Essendon make the finals. Throughout the year, and leading into the vote count, Heppell was widely considered to be the favourite for the Ron Evans Medal, awarded to the rising star of each season. He won the medal, polling 44 of a possible 45 votes and became the first Essendon player to win the award. Heppell described winning the award as "a dream come true". He continued his ascent as an emerging star by finishing third in the clubs best and fairest award count, Essendon's best and fairest award; his second consecutive top-three placing. Having played his first two seasons largely off half-back, Heppell moved into a ball-winning role in the midfield in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

, averaging 24 disposals for the season. He polled three

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by t ...

votes for his 36-possession and two-goal effort against

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

in round 2 and was in the best players for the comeback win over Carlton in round 11. Heppell continued his upward climb throughout the 2014 season, winning his maiden

, receiving his first selection in the

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...

, and polled 14 votes in the

2014 Brownlow Medal The 2014 Brownlow Medal was the 87th year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home and away season. Matt Priddis of the West Coast Eagles won the medal by polling ...

. Heppell, along with 33 other Essendon players, whilst not returning a positive test was found guilty of using a banned performance-enhancing substance, thymosin beta-4, as part of Essendon's sports supplements program during the 2012 season. He and his team-mates were initially found not guilty in March 2015 by the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal, but a guilty verdict was returned in January 2016 after an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency. He was suspended for two years which, with backdating, ended in November 2016; as a result, he served approximately fourteen months of his suspension and missed the entire

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

. In February 2017, Heppell was announced as Essendon's new

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, taking over from Brendon Goddard. In December 2019, Heppell (who was already contracted until 2020) signed a two-year contract extension with Essendon, keeping him at the club until 2022, and retained the captaincy for a fourth season.

Statistics

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, , , , 21 , 19 , , 8 , , 11 , , 269 , , 192 , , 461 , , 88 , , 74 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 14.2 , , 10.1 , , 24.3 , , 4.6 , , 3.9 , , 10 , - , scope=row ,

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, , , , 21 , 22 , , 10 , , 4 , , 327 , , 263 , , 590 , , 122 , , 87 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 14.9 , , 12.0 , , 26.8 , , 5.5 , , 4.0 , , 13 , - style=background:#EAEAEA , scope=row , 2019 , , , , 21 , 18 , , 4 , , 5 , , 230 , , 243 , , 473 , , 98 , , 52 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 12.8 , , 13.5 , , 26.3 , , 5.4 , , 2.9 , , 3 , - , scope=row , 2020 , , , , 21 , 3 , , 1 , , 1 , , 15 , , 25 , , 40 , , 4 , , 3 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 5.0 , , 8.3 , , 13.3 , , 1.3 , , 1.0 , , 0 , - style=background:#EAEAEA , scope=row , 2021 , , , , 21 , 19 , , 2 , , 1 , , 276 , , 194 , , 470 , , 132 , , 47 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 14.5 , , 10.2 , , 24.7 , , 7.0 , , 2.5 , , 0 , - , scope=row , 2022 , , , , 21 , 6 , , 0 , , 0 , , 66 , , 65 , , 131 , , 35 , , 9 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 11.0 , , 10.8 , , 21.8 , , 5.8 , , 1.5 , , , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 197 !! 62 !! 51 !! 2645 !! 2241 !! 4886 !! 1045 !! 694 !! 0.3 !! 0.3 !! 13.4 !! 11.4 !! 24.8 !! 5.3 !! 3.5 !! 71 Notes

Honours and achievements

Individual * Essendon captain: 2017–present *

: 2014 * Ron Evans Medal:

* Australia representative honours in international rules football:

* AFLPA best first-year player: 2011 * AFLCA best young player of the year: 2012 * 3× 22under22 team: 2012, 2013 (c), 2014 (c)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heppell, Dyson Essendon Football Club players Living people 1992 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Gippsland Power players Leongatha Football Club players AFL Rising Star winners All-Australians (AFL) Crichton Medal winners Doping cases in Australian rules football People from Leongatha Australia international rules football team players