No game for us this weekend unfortunately, back into it next weekend by the look of things.
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So Paul will there be less byes over the remainder of the year so the team ends up playing the same number of games as originally planned?
We really donât know at this stage mate, but that would be a live possibility yep. Looks like the draw will essentially be week to week from now on.
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Thanks Paul
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Rats.
Thanks for the update.
For us, or everyone? We (and 7 other teams) were always set for a bye this round.
Comment suggesting nothing for anyone:
EDIT: âflipped" means round 14 of VFLW before round 13.
Most local and country leagues already had the week off for the QB weekend. Ammos have been like that forever so the lads can get up the snow.
Yeah nothing in Vic until next weekend.
No LIKEs for anyone!
Starts looking up long-range forecast for Willy in 9-10 days timeâŠ
We were hoping to play the Tiges on Sunday FWIW, no idea what the draw will look like now but Iâd guess itâll resemble the AFL one where possible, excluding any travel.
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Stop making me look up who the AFL team is playing!
bye - Dawks - the team that wanted to be the Dawks
Essendonâs Aaron Heppell announced his retirement from VFL footy in February. (Picture: essendonfc.com.au)
Essendonâs Aaron Heppell announced his retirement from the VFL in February, at just 26-years-old.
The decision was not one that came easily for the three-time Bombers best and fairest winner, and one that he thought deeply about throughout 2020.
He joined the club at the start of the 2014 season, playing in multiple finals series and being appointed captain two years ago, in what would be his final season playing for Essendon.
Heppell was a player who constantly found himself talked about in draft circles as one who could make the step up to AFL football after a strong showing for the Gippsland Power in his draft year, predominantly played as an inside ball winner.
While he came close on a few occasions, he ultimately remained undrafted for seven years.
Heppell spoke to The Inner Sanctum after the official announcement of his retirement about the process and the journey leading up to the decision, as well as his footy career in the red and black.
â[The decision to retire] was obviously a big one,â Heppell said.
âIt took me about four months to come to a set decision. [My partner Phoebe], she was my sounding board for the majority of the time. I spoke to a lot of people who Iâve made good relationships with at the Essendon Footy Club and around Leongatha.
âI played [at Essendon] for seven years and everything went pretty well and I had some good relationships with a lot of the people at the club, which was probably the hardest thing to say goodbye to.
âI love the club, I loved going to training, I love the facilities, love the people. Itâs something I never dreaded doing, going to training, it was actually a release for me.
âIt was a time where you could drop whatever was going on in your life, whether it was uni, work or relationships, you just go to the club. It was kind of my release space, my mindfulness space, it was a really nice environment.
âThatâs why it was such a hard decision.â
Aaron Heppell in his first year at Essendonâs VFL team. (Picture: @essendonvfl/Twitter)
A country boy at heart, 2020âs COVID lockdowns in Melbourne had Heppell itching to get back to where it all started.
Located in South Gippsland, his home of Leongatha is a small country town with a population barely squeezing over 5000, a stark difference to the bustling city streets and suburbs of Melbourne.
The call of home was too hard to resist for Heppell, as he began to eye off an offer as a playing-assistant coach position at the townâs local team, the Leongatha Parrots.
Both Heppell and his brother Dyson, as well as new Essendon recruit Zach Reid, all found their way to the Bombers through the Parrots.
âWhen Leongatha called with the potential to get out of Melbourne on every weekend of the footy season, [it] sounded appealing,â Heppell explained.
âJust to get home and spend more time in Inverloch with my family and my friends back home was kind of a drawcard. Iâve still got a few friends I went to school with playing at Leongatha.
âBecoming a senior coach of a local football club is definitely what Iâm striving towards over the next three to five years.
âI guess this is a reintroduction to local football to me, and what local football coaching looks like. Thatâs definitely something I want to move into.â
Opportunities donât come easy
The step up from underage footy to the VFL was not one that came easily for Heppell.
While the then TAC Cup (now NAB League) was full of under 18s players trying their hardest to live out their AFL dream while still developing their game, the VFL is host to AFL-listed players and the best of the rest in Victoria.
Heppell found the jump up to the next level came with its challenges.
âComing from TAC Cup, where I played all the way through, played every game⊠I had always played every game and put that expectation on myself,â he said.
âIt was a bit of a wake-up call that I needed to improve on my game in a lot of areas, especially after not getting picked up as an 18-year-old in the draft. It really gave me a drive to focus on improving my footy and doing what I needed to do to ensure that I am getting a game every week.
âWhether that be improving my performance through training or watching edits or having conversations with coaches and things like that to make sure I was getting the most out of what the Essendon Football Club program had to offer.
âI experienced all lenses of the program, coming in as an 18-year-old and not getting games and trying to fight for a spot, and then into my later years being captain and having more of a leadership role.
âNot just having a guaranteed spot every week, but being able to work with the younger guys and develop their leadership and football as well.
âLooking back, thereâs definitely a lot of aspects I miss. The people around the club, the training standards, the facilities and just how accessible everything is in such a professional environment.
âThe local clubs donât have nowhere near that kind of facilities and environment. Those are the things Iâll miss the most.â
Being given the captaincy at the start of the 2019 season was a natural progression for Heppell as he continued to develop in Essendonâs VFL program.
He became one of the sideâs star players in 2016, winning his first of three best and fairest awards as he matured and grew into the leadership qualities that would eventually be recognised by his coaches and peers.
Part of that maturity came from taking on more responsibility, and learning to be more selfless, gaining a better understanding of how to communicate with his teammates over time.
âIâm not going to lie, I spoke to other VFL clubs and I spoke to other local clubs, especially in my early years when I wasnât getting much opportunity,â Heppell admitted.
âDefinitely happy I stuck around.
âThrough those years, I was not only able to get a game, but tailor the program to how I liked it, which is very people focused.
âMaking sure everyone was really enjoying their time at the club as much as I was, especially the younger guys coming through havenât not got a game⊠knowing what it feels like for them to come from local level or from TAC Cup and theyâre really battling for a spot.
âYouâre dealing with a lot of other things in life that people are going through as a coach, thereâs a lot more than just coaching footy, which I learned as a captain.
âA lot of these guys have a lot more going on in their day to day life and so I guess thatâs part of being a captain and part of being a coach. You manage the people as well as the players.â
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Part two⊠with more to come!
15/06/2021 by Alex Catalano
Aaron Heppell leaned on his brother Dyson throughout his VFL career. (Picture: essendonfc.com.au)
Dyson Heppell once described his younger brother Aaron as a âpretty cruisey knacker.â
Born three years apart, the Heppell brothers grew up together, played footy together at Leongatha, and are as close as ever to this very day.
Aaron says he and his brother do share a few fair similarities, particularly on the football field.
âI still think we have a number of similar attributes⊠weâre both heavily lacking speed!,â he laughs.
They travel together, they party together, they even sported the same shocking hairdo together for far too long. The Heppell mop top is as iconic as the name itself.
One thing the brothers never managed to do, however, was play AFL football together.
Dyson was a highly touted player coming into his draft year, picked by the Essendon Football Club with its first round selection, pick eight in the 2010 national draft.
He would win the Rising Star award in his first season, polling 44 of a possible 45 votes to finish ahead of fellow star mids in West Coastâs Luke Shuey and Geelongâs Mitch Duncan.
Aaron seemed to be on the same path to follow in his brotherâs footsteps, putting together a strong season in the middle for the Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup in 2013.
Draft night came and went, the younger Heppell ultimately going undrafted by all 18 teams.
The comparisons between the two were both a blessing and a curse, Aaron believes. It took him a number of years to step out of his brotherâs shadow in his own mind.
âI probably put a lot more pressure on myself as an 18-year-old going through TAC Cup,â Heppell explained.
âObviously when Dys got picked up and had a bit of a breakout year and was becoming an established player in the AFL, and me as a 17-year-old trying to see where I stand and trying to tick the right boxes to follow the same path, I probably compared myself a lot more to him and tried to model my game around Dys.â
Aaron (L) and Dyson (R) Heppell with Dysonâs dogs Ziggy and Flip. (Picture: @dysonheppell/Instagram)
Being picked by Essendonâs VFL team at the beginning of the 2014 season, Heppell allowed himself to flourish as his own player.
âMoving through my VFL career, 20 or 21, those kind of years, I probably stopped comparing myself to Dys and tried to become my own player and focus on my strengths as a player rather than try and mould myself into what Dys was,â he said.
Draft night every year from then would be a night not full of expectations, Heppell never quite getting his hopes up that he would find his way onto an AFL list.
2016 saw ASADA hand down a ban on 34 current and former Essendon players, allowing an opportunity for top-up players to prove themselves on Essendonâs list.
This included Dyson, in a year that he and his family will never forget.
To us, itâs my brother,
itâs a son, itâs family.
Heppell played pre-season games with the Bombers, coming agonisingly close to his AFL dream.
âI never went into draft night with that expectation that I was going to get picked up, putting that expectation on my shoulders,â he said.
âAt the end of the 2016 year, I did get my hopes up a little bit.
âIâd spoken to Essendon a number of times and they were looking⊠they pump you up and make you feel good. They were very close to taking me.
âTurns out, their list management and whatever happened, they didnât quite squeeze me in. I did feel like I got pretty close.â
While recruiters continued to draw comparisons between the two brothers, a potential factor as to why Heppell was never drafted, he continued to learn and grow from his brother.
â[Dyson] was the number one factor on why I chose to go to Essendon in the first place,â Heppell said.
â[He was] a real support for me, especially in my younger years at the club, taking me in on AFL training days, doing extra craft with me, introducing myself to a lot of different coaches and players, and providing me with a lot of opportunities to expand and enhance my game that a regular VFL player wouldnât get.
âI was living with him when I first moved to Melbourne as well, so he wasnât just a footy mentor but a life mentor as well.
âLiving in the same house, watching how he eats, watching how he prepares, watching how he trains⊠it definitely made a big impact on my footy.â
The supplements saga and becoming âone clubâ
The Heppell family found themselves at the centre of Essendonâs supplements saga, the investigation into the clubâs injection programs beginning in 2013.
By the time the official bans were handed out in 2016 to the 34 players, Dyson Heppell had become as synonymous as the red sash with the Essendon Football Club.
Aaron had a front row seat to how it all played out, watching his brother and the club he loved go through constant media attention and scrutiny.
âWe definitely rode every bump as a family together,â Heppell said.
âThe hard thing was how long it dragged on for. There always seemed to be a final date then something else would pop up. For a number of years at that time, we didnât know when it was going to end.
âYouâd look at the back page of the paper and for a lot of people it was the Essendon Bombers and Dyson Heppell, whatever.
âTo us, itâs my brother, itâs a son, itâs family.
âEach day you didnât know what was going to be written about your brother, some of your good mates at the club. It was definitely a demanding time, and a time of uncertainty, both within the club and the league as a whole.â
Forever the optimist, Heppell sees the upside the banning of players provided the Essendon Football Club.
Young players including Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish and Aaron Francis benefitted highly from the leadership of Brendon Goddard, while the top-up players and VFL-listed boys were able to spread their wings.
Heppell in particular enjoyed one of his best years yet in the sash, winning his first of three best and fairests.
âThe ban year was my breakout year as a player, when a lot of the established guys were out of the AFL which meant more AFL-listed guys got more AFL opportunity which meant more VFL-listed guys got more VFL opportunity,â he said.
âIf you look at it in that kind of light, I definitely think that the players being banned provided guys like myself, [Anthony] McDonald-Tipungwuti a lot more opportunity than they would have seen had that not happened.â
It was a period of great change, and Essendon would soon be making itâs first foray into womenâs football.
The club fielded its first ever womenâs side in the VFLW in 2018. While they struggled on-field to get wins on the board, it was off-field that Essendon benefitted the most.
Heppell with Essendon VFLW best and fairest winner Hayley Bullas in 2018. (Picture: @essendonfc/Twitter)
Heppell and partner Phoebe formed a strong bond in particular with current Essendon VFLW vice-captain Courtney Ugle.
âWe had a really big focus on that, and I know they still do now, on making sure itâs a one club feel,â Heppell said.
âThe AFL, the VFL, the VFLW, it all falls under the one banner, weâre all the one club. That was a really big focus, especially between us and the VFLW, that we do functions together, train together, weâre mates outside of football as well.
âWhich makes it such a nicer environment to come to. Instead of having 25 guys on our VFL list, now we have 40 girls and the AFL guys, so it turns from a club of 25 to a club of nearly 100 people.
âItâs a much nicer environment and a much nicer social environment too.â
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Bit of a snub for the Darebin Falcons.
Inner city latte sipper journos have been pushing, including for Fitzroy. Darebin needs more journos
The final part!
Aaron Heppell â Part 3: The Inverloch and key to his heart
20/06/2021 by Alex Catalano
Aaron Heppell playing for Leongatha earlier this year. (Picture: Leongatha Football Netball Club/Facebook)
After his retirement from Essendonâs VFL team, The Inner Sanctum sat down to chat with former captain Aaron Heppell. Read part one, and part two here.
Life in the country has always suited Aaron Heppell more than the always-moving city lifestyle of Melbourne.
Four months on from when he made the decision to retire from the VFL, heâs been travelling to his home town of Inverloch every weekend.
Itâs a modest, little coastal town, just a 20 minute drive out of Leongatha.
Heppell has been able to spend time with mates, visit his parents every weekend, and go for a swim or a surf on the gorgeous shores of Gippslandâs south-west.
Itâs a reprieve from life in Melbourne, Heppell explains. Thereâs only so much city-slicking the boy from Gippy can take before he needs to return to where it all started.
âJust spending weekends down there, Iâm absolutely loving,â Heppell told The Inner Sanctum .
âGetting out of the city and being able to go down to the beach and spend weekends down there, it almost feels like a little holiday amongst your week with how busy your life is day-to-day living in the city.
âWith work, and footy training and all your other commitments, itâs pretty flat out, I barely stop.
âItâs so nice to drive down there and know youâve got the whole weekend to just kick back, play footy and then relax. I absolutely love that kind of release from the city.â
Heppell has been enoying his return to local footy at the Leongatha Parrots, starring through the midfield and forward lines (he kicked five this week!).
Heâs consistently been one of the players in the squad, and hitting the scoreboard regularly too.
Heppell isnât as worried about his individual form anymore though. Thereâs so much more to footy now than just racking up the disposals every week.
âIâm loving the local footy club, country footy club feel,â he explained.
â[You] kind of miss that being part of such a professional environment within the VFL. You rock up to your game day and everyoneâs solely focused on that one game, getting the job done in that one game.
âThe feel around a community footy club is so different, itâs much bigger than just the game at hand.
âItâs such an inclusive family club and the feel around the place, is something Iâve really missed⊠just the amount of people involved and how much they appreciate you being there.â
Heppell the coach
His assistant coaching role has given him another level of appreciation for the game, having to think about the bigger picture during the week and on game day.
Heppell leads a group of 10 Melbourne-based players through training throughout the week, and coaches the midfield group while also playing on game day.
The extra perspective he gleans from these new roles is key to capturing a different sort of love for footy.
âThereâs definitely been different challenges to what my VFL experience was like,â Heppell said.
â[Youâre] getting to your quarter-time and half-time huddles, and the guys are turning towards you. You need to have that broader picture about how you see the game.
The quarter-time huddle at Leongatha. (Picture: Leongatha Football Netball Club/Facebook)
âAs a coach at local level, coming into those breaks guys are looking to you, not for answers, but for how youâre seeing the game. You need to take that step back and look at everyone elseâs performance and structurally, how everything is going.
âIâm still working on that, trying to take that step back and look at it from an outsiderâs perspective and still trying to perform myself, thatâs been the biggest challenge there.
âIâm really enjoying being part of the decision-making processes in terms of selection and game plan and training.â
The only game Leongatha has lost in 2021 was to Wonthaggi earlier in the season. The Power are the only side that sit between Heppellâs Parrots and the top of the ladder.
Seeing it from the other side
While he hasnât been able to see every game his old side has played, Heppell watched the VFL Bombers take on Carlton as part of a past playerâs function.
The club couldnât have chosen a worse week to hold it, the Bombers getting tuned up by 49 points by a dominant Blues outfit.
It was the first time Heppell had seen his old teammates run out without him since retiring.
âGoing to the game, it was definitely weird,â he said.
âI went into the rooms before the games, and it bought back some feels and made me want to run out there again. It was quite weird.
âItâs a little bit sad to see that theyâre not flying. They have had a few injuries and stuff like that, so thereâs excuses to it.â
Heppell at the past players (and train-ons) function in May. (Picture: @aaronheppell/Instagram)
While heâs been removed from the team for four months now, Heppell still has many close friends around the club that he says heâll never lose touch with.
âI keep in contact with a number of people from Essendon still, just to see how the programâs going.
âI talk to Danny Younan, whoâs the captain at the moment, pretty regularly. We kind of bounce ideas off each other about my football and his football as well. I definitely feel a little bit involved with the club still.â
While seeing the old boys and watching the team left Heppell leaving Windy Hill with bittersweet emotions, it hasnât deterred him one bit.
He says heâs made his decision, and heâs sticking with it. The number one factor thatâs kept him going is getting back to his roots, loving the environment that Leongatha provides.
âAs soon as I came down to Leongatha and went to a few trainings, I knew I had made the right decision,â he said.
âYouâre so consumed within the footy of VFL, and it takes up a lot of thinking during your week as well. Youâre nearly obsessed with it, from week to week.
âBeing able to get back and have a lot less kind of pressure from week to week, not only to perform, but it takes up a lot less of my thoughts, local football.
âNot that I ever stressed about VFL, but it doesnât consume as much of my thoughts from week to week.
âYou can really enjoy the time you are at the club, and the people there.â
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âTheâ Inverloch?? WTF?
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