VFL 2019: Williamstown champion Nick Meese poised to play 150th senior game
Williamstown ruckman Nick Meese’s VFL career will take in another accolade this Sunday when he plays his 150th senior game.
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Carlton had “Big Nick’’, legendary ruckman John Nicholls.
The VFL has its own big Nick: Williamstown ruckman Nick Meese.
And although he cannot be hailed as a legend, Meese can be called a champion of the state league.
Just as Nicholls was no towering ruckman, Meese gives away height each week and overcomes taller opponents with his positioning, bulk (he comes in at 105kg) and guile.
Two years ago he was credited with 94 hit-outs in a match against Footscray Bulldogs; remarkably, he had almost 1100 for the season.
Another high number comes to the 30-year-old Seagull this weekend when he plays his 150th senior match in the VFL.
It will be against Sandringham at Sandy, and he’ll likely be opposed to Billy Longer.
Longer is 203cm. Williamstown puts Meese down at 197cm.
“There’s no way he’s that tall!’’ a former Frankston official said on Sunday as he watched Meese ruck at SkyBus Stadium.
Meese was listed at 194cm when he was at the Northern Bullants. He was said to be 196cm when he was at the Northern Knights.
“Who knows? I keep bumping it up!’’ he said when asked to confirm his height.
“Realistically, 195cm or 196cm. I reckon the Knights might have bumped me up a couple to try to get me drafted or something.
“I actually feel a bit shorter because all the other blokes coming in are taller and taller. I feel like I’ve shrunk!’’
Willy coach Andy Collins has told often told the story of his first meeting with Meese.
They caught up at a Heidelberg cafe in the pre-season of 2014.
“When he walked in, I thought, ‘You can’t be the ruckman’,’’ Collins said.
“He looked like he was lucky to be 195cm, a stocky bloke with a singlet on, and not in such good shape.’’
But Collins quickly came to appreciate Meese’s ruck skills, which he broadened under the coaching of former Willy assistant and Hawthorn ruckman Robbie Campbell.
“He actually taught me a lot of tricks,’’ Meese said of Campbell. “Things that were obvious but I hadn’t given much thought to.’’
Meese is a stalwart of the VFL and should be closer to 200 senior games than 150.
After his Under 18 years at the Knights, he started at the Northern Bullants in 2007 (his father, John, played at the club when it was Preston).
But he played more in the reserves than the seniors.
Meese went back to West Preston in 2010, won the league medal and helped the Roosters to a premiership.
That prompted a return to the Bullants, but he had to compete with Carlton players for the ruck position.
In 2012 Meese won the first of his six VFL team-of-the-year jumpers, a highlight of his season coming against Casey when he had 53 hit-outs and 21 tackles.
A Casey coach referred to him that day as “the John Nicholls of the VFL’’ as he watched Meese win the tap and often double up with a tackle (these days Meese likes to joke with his mates that he’s a “tap-and-wrap’’ player).
But in 2013 he had to spend time in the Development League, squeezed out of the team by Carlton big men. For all his family ties with Northern, he decided he was done with alignments. He considered a move to the SANFL.
At the end of that season, Williamstown was preparing to resume as a stand-alone club and identified Northern Blues pair Adam Marcon and Kane Lambert as recruiting targets.
The Seagulls finished with four Blues — Lambert and Marcon, Tim Currie and Meese, Marcon’s first cousin.
The package of players cost the Towners $25,000, but they can say now it was a heck of a deal.
Lambert and Marcon went on to play for Richmond (Lambert in the Tigers’ 2017 premiership), Marcon is now captain of the Towners and Currie figured in Willy’s 2015 flag.
Then there’s Meese, the best ruckman in the VFL. He gave a superb performance in the 2015 grand final, has been in the VFL team of the year for the past five seasons and won the best and fairest, the Gerry Callahan Medal, in 2017.
“Mate, that was a great move for me, going to Williamstown,’’ Meese said.
“Once that offer and opportunity from Williamstown came up, it was a no-brainer for me, to go with my cousin and mates, stay in Victoria, play for a stand-alone team.
“Worked out so well.’’
And it’s just as well Meese is a strong man.
He carries a heavy load: aside from leading Willy’s ruck division, he works as a plumber and when Leader caught up with him this morning he was heading to an apartment block at St Kilda to repair a running toilet.
“It should be a clean job,’’ he said.
But if there was more to it than a leak, big Nick was happy to do dirty work other than of the tap-and-wrap variety.
VFL GREAT BEN JOLLEY ON NICK MEESE
He’s a footballer’s footballer. No fuss. He knows exactly what he needs to do and my God does he get the job done.
He has an innate ability to get along with everyone, from a fellow tradesman to a young kid who has just arrived at the club with a university degree. He has ample time for everyone.
The great thing about our game is that stature or size, regardless of the position you’re playing, sometimes doesn’t matter. Small forwards can turn a game when your 6’4 forward is struggling to get a kick. Nick is clearly the strongest player I’ve played with. He knows what he’s got and how to use it.
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