AFL Player #21: Dyson Heppell - Goodnight, sweet prince. What a legend! 🤙 - 24/8

[Lore]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2024
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 27, Highly Evolved

 

[Cold Sober]

Cheers Hepp - well done

Hope to see you Captain-Coaching the Parrots or in the EDFL next year

Thanks Worzel!

Meeniyan/Dumbalk. Leongatha were just the Bleeder Club.

 

[JayJ20]

Not giving him a farewell game in front of our home crowd is just a faux tough thing that pretends to make a statement and address a "cultural issue" when it really has no impact on our culture.

Many many successful clubs give their former captains a farewell game. It's not symptomatic of a soft club to let him retire without playing in front of a home crowd one last time.

In fact, it is symptomatic of a club that just doesn't care about building an identity and instilling passion in the playing group. What does playing for Essendon mean when your former captain who has been through the saga as a youngster and took on probably the toughest captaincy role in the history of AFL can't even say goodbye to a home crowd?
Even if we're playing to win, we have a bunch of spuds playing every week so it's not going to impact our on-field performance. It might even galvanise the playing group to play with a bit of passion for Heppell.

Give him the game this week and let him retire on a high. That's what any club with passion would do, something our playing group and club is severely devoid of.

 

[Cold Sober]

Thanks Dyse.
250 games is a great effort, especially those during 'The Witch Hunt'.
Enjoy retirement, you earned it.

 

[FootyGuru]

Isn’t Heppell the logical cox replacement? I wouldn’t surprise if he played without the retirement

 

[P Money]

Not giving him a farewell game in front of our home crowd is just a faux tough thing that pretends to make a statement and address a "cultural issue" when it really has no impact on our culture.

Many many successful clubs give their former captains a farewell game. It's not symptomatic of a soft club to let him retire without playing in front of a home crowd one last time.

In fact, it is symptomatic of a club that just doesn't care about building an identity and instilling passion in the playing group. What does playing for Essendon mean when your former captain who has been through the saga as a youngster and took on probably the toughest captaincy role in the history of AFL can't even say goodbye to a home crowd?
Even if we're playing to win, we have a bunch of spuds playing every week so it's not going to impact our on-field performance. It might even galvanise the playing group to play with a bit of passion for Heppell.

Give him the game this week and let him retire on a high. That's what any club with passion would do, something our playing group and club is severely devoid of.

I agree with a lot of your points. I think the only thing that clouds that is the fact that our club has gifted games (and inflated contracts) to players who were undeserving based on their performance as we 'owed them' after the saga. Whether that was the right thing or the wrong thing I really don't know and not going to get into it here.

FWIW I'm happy for Hepp to get a farewell game, particularly given finals are a pipe dream now. But given our history I genuinely don't know what would say more about fixing our culture: giving our former captain who's gone through a hell of a lot and stuck fat with the club a farewell game; or denying him one and drawing a line in the sand to ending the charity and handouts that we've been giving to players (and let's face it, this includes Heppell) since 2017.

 

[jdstorm]

Thanks for the memories best of luck with whatever’s next

 

[bombreys]

Onya Dys.

With no finals, give him a farewell game.

 

[eth-dog]

Cheers Hepp. Legend.

 

[dnbassador]

That video was incredibly hard to watch seeing how much he loves the club even when the club took away such a peak section of his career.

He wasn’t ready but props to him for doing once again what was best for the club.

Blokes like Heppell are severely underrated in this day and age of society. I hope he doesn’t drift off to the sunset and we get to see the best of Dys every now and then somewhere.

 

[Shanghaistu]

If he does get a farewell game, hope the boys can do him better justice than what they served up for his 250th

 

[eth-dog]

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

 

[zigipop]

+ 1 for farewell game. It would be a strange juncture to take a tough stance on gifting games when we’ve been doing it for years for blokes far less deserving. It would be very Essington to shit on an ex-captain over a single game when we’ve previously fielded the likes of Henry Slattery

Henry Slattery

Age

38

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

5.3

2star

HB

5.5

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

3.6

5star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

4.2

2star

HB

4.4

4star

M

2.6

3star

T

1.8

4star

, Zaharakis 5 years beyond his used by date, Gleeson, Ham, Michael Quinn, Tree Beard, Fat Walla etc etc

 

[Gumby2Hurley]

Some game he had in his come back game post ban in 2017. Happy i was there to see him torch the hawks.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Legend. They better give him a send off he deserves

 

[Skipper_]

Some game he had in his come back game post ban in 2017. Happy i was there to see him torch the hawks.

What a night that was. It is a shame we couldn’t put a competent midfield around Hepp and Zach in that 2017-19 era as we could’ve done a bit of damage with that forward and back line.

 

[MWPP]

As a couple of you know I am a Bombers member and did attend every home game over 2022 to 2023 when I was living in Melbourne. Still , sorry for the intrusion.

Anyway he is my long-term favourite Bombers player so I’m biased. I was genuinely sad when I got a text from the club with the news. Even if I was also unsurprised. Thank you Hepp for the service, loyalty and the memories. Classy and lead from the front in his prime and consistent in his later years. I really hope he gets the fairytale sendoff and upset win this Friday night assuming he even wants it.

 

[NoWuckingFurries]

 

[ghostdog]

I know this is harsh - and most will disagree - but hope he doesn't play again. He's had 3 years of farewell games.

I thought this last week when we were still a chance. Now I'm in the farewell game corner. He's been a dedicated club man who was always willing to back blindly into a pack to take that mark. I would have preferred to be writing this a year ago, but here we are. Can't begrudge the guy.

Congratulations Dys. Fare thee well.

 

[bomberlegend2007]

Very happy. Went on far too long.
Honestly I don't respect anyone at the club at the moment, and he's retiring as an utter failure.
I wish this wasn't the case, and I know I'm digging the boots in, but I dgaf anymore.

Honestly, what’s the point of a post like this?

 

[ghostdog]

Onya doise

Right call. Maybe some coaching?

Honestly, I wouldn't shortlist him. He's not demanding enough. Too soft.

I reckon he could do the special comments in the box though. His voice would be far less annoying than Jobe's.

 

[quotemokc]

Like Watson before him he deserved to play in a better team.

 

[ScrappyCoCo]

Sad day. My kids grew from junior footballers to young adults with Dyson in the team. Eldest has 21 on his jumper. Dyson would have influenced many young men through footy. Thanks knackers.

 

[scythe]

Not giving him a farewell game in front of our home crowd is just a faux tough thing that pretends to make a statement and address a "cultural issue" when it really has no impact on our culture.

Many many successful clubs give their former captains a farewell game. It's not symptomatic of a soft club to let him retire without playing in front of a home crowd one last time.

In fact, it is symptomatic of a club that just doesn't care about building an identity and instilling passion in the playing group. What does playing for Essendon mean when your former captain who has been through the saga as a youngster and took on probably the toughest captaincy role in the history of AFL can't even say goodbye to a home crowd?
Even if we're playing to win, we have a bunch of spuds playing every week so it's not going to impact our on-field performance. It might even galvanise the playing group to play with a bit of passion for Heppell.

Give him the game this week and let him retire on a high. That's what any club with passion would do, something our playing group and club is severely devoid of.

As much as the club needs to learn how to exercise some ruthlessness in selection, I find it very hard to argue against this.

 

[yodellinhank]

I thought this last week when we were still a chance. Now I'm in the farewell game corner. He's been a dedicated club man who was always willing to back blindly into a pack to take that mark. I would have preferred to be writing this a year ago, but here we are. Can't begrudge the guy.

Congratulations Dys. Fare thee well.

He can play this week in the VFL. If we're out after that or he plays well we think about playing him.

 

[bombadeer]

Has always played his heart out for the club, and carried the captaincy through the toughest of tough periods for the Dons.

I thought he was physically spent a few years ago after we banged him up playing as an inside midfielder, but he came again and ran into a pretty rich vein of form.

That takes guts and grit, both of which Dyson has in spades.

Well done Hep. Well done.