1. Melissa Hickey was born on 18 December 1984 and is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club and the Geelong Football Club in the AFL Women's.
26 Facts About Melissa Hickey
1. 2.
Melissa Hickey served as Geelong captain in the club's first two AFL Women's seasons.
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Melissa Hickey represented Melbourne in the exhibition games 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.
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Melissa Hickey was selected in the inaugural AFL Women's All-Australian team in 2017, and represented Victoria in the inaugural AFL Women's State of Origin match.
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Melissa Hickey was born in Red Cliffs, Victoria, which is sixteen kilometres south of Mildura, and was raised in Mildura.
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Melissa Hickey 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 in 1897 for Fitzroy and won two premierships with the club, her grandfather's cousin was Geelong legend and Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee, Reg Hickey, she's related to former Port Adelaide captain and coach, Matthew Primus, and her father, Peter Hickey, played an extensive career in Mildura.
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Melissa Hickey played Australian rules football at a young age, including playing for her primary school, Irymple South Primary School.
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Melissa Hickey attended high school at St Josephs College in Mildura.
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Melissa Hickey joined the Darebin Falcons in the Victorian Women's Football League 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.
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Melissa Hickey changed clubs for the 2011 season and joined St Albans.
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Melissa Hickey played the entire season until she tore her anterior cruciate ligament during the finals series and subsequently missed St Albans' grand final victory; despite the injury, her season was rewarded with All-Australian honours.
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Melissa 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.
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Melissa Hickey was 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.
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Melissa Hickey played every match for the 2015 VWFL season including Darebin's third consecutive premiership and her fifth overall.
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Melissa Hickey was one of six players retained by the Melbourne Football Club for the two exhibition matches against the Western Bulldogs in 2015.
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In July 2016, Melissa Hickey was announced as one of two marquee player signings for the Melbourne Football Club, alongside Daisy Pearce.
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Melissa Hickey was announced as the vice-captain of the club alongside Elise O'Dea in January 2017.
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Melissa Hickey debuted in Melbourne's inaugural match against Brisbane at Casey Fields in a fifteen-point loss, where she recorded thirteen disposals and three marks.
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Melissa Hickey played in the opening six rounds of the 2018 AFL Women's season before rupturing her ACL during the round six win against Carlton at Ikon Park and subsequently missed the final round of the season.
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In May 2018, prior to the 2018 AFL Women's signing period, Melissa Hickey was announced as one of four Melbourne players, along with Richelle Cranston, Erin Hoare and Anna Teague, to join Geelong in the newly expanded competition.
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Melissa 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".
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Melissa Hickey was officially signed by the club at the beginning of the trading and signing period on 11 May 2018.
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Melissa Hickey later led Geelong in its first finals appearance the following month.
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Melissa 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.
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Melissa Hickey was in a relationship with fellow AFLW player Katie Brennan from 2012 to 2017.
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Melissa Hickey is currently in a relationship with former teammate Danielle Higgins, and they share a son, named River, born in 2024.