Mitchell Hannan (born 9 March 1994) is a former 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL), having been initially drafted to the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

. 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) ** Smal ...

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

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

. After failing to play in the

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

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, Australia, Victoria. Founded in 1892, it consists of six senior divisions, ranging from Premier to Division 3 i ...

(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 competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(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 allowe ...

and he made his debut in the opening round of the 2017 season. He was a delisted at the end of the 2023 AFL 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 Shire of Macedon Ranges, Macedon Ranges Shire, with a population of 14,432 as of June 2021 in the Gisborne di ...

, Hannan failed to make the

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

and

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

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 (Australian rules football), mark (or catch) in Australian rules football that typically involves a player jumping up on the back of another player. The ...

" 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. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

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 a former AFL player. He played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL) Playing career West Coast Eagles Hansen was born in Victoria, Australia and was educated at Mazenod Colleg ...

, 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, currently known as Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, and commonly shortened as The Etihad, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City, with a domestic football capacity of 53,600, making it the 7t ...

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 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 a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

, 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 (AFLPA, 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 AFLPA promotes and protects its member ...

(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 featur ...

, 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 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. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

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 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, , 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 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, , 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 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, , 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 The year 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 even ...

, , 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 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, , 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 (state) Casey Demons players Western Bulldogs players 21st-century Australian sportsmen