VFLW: Hawthorn’s Meg Hutchins plays 250th game

Meg Hutchins might be 39 but she’s still getting a kick in the Victorian women’s state league. She’s a champion of female football.

Meg Hutchins slots a goal for Hawthorn in the VFLW.

She was best first-year player in the old Victorian women’s league in 2003.

Almost 20 years later, Meg Hutchins is wearing well.

The best-first year player now deserves an award for durability.

Her next birthday will be her 40th, yet last Sunday in the VFLW Hutchins played the whole game for Hawthorn.

It just happened to be her 250th senior match, a tally made up by more than 200 appearances for Eastern Devils in the VWFL and VFLW, AFL exhibition matches, AFLW appearances with Collingwood and VFLW outings with the Hawks.

Hutchins knew a milestone was “somewhere on the way but I had no idea it was on the day’’.

“I got to the ground and did my normal thing and we got into our pre-game team meeting,’’ she said.

“Usually Bec (coach Bec Goddard) tells a bit of a quirky tale and a bit of a story and gives us a theme for the day. She said, ‘Look, I’m not going to tell you a story today, because today is all about ‘Hutch’.

“And I’m like, ‘Umm, what?’ Then Jess Trend, our captain, got up and said a couple of lovely words and they put on a video presentation. Yeah, it was a bit of a shock, but pretty special.’’

Meg Hutchins is widely regarded as one of the best kicks in female football.

The match was at the Box Hill City Oval, and she played every bit of it, the last quarter on the ball.

Hutchins was comfortably the most senior player on the ground. Not that she thought about it.

“When you’re out there your age is only a number,’’ she said.

“You’re just another player. It’s no excuse. You have to give everything you can and be the best you can be. I’ve got to keep these young ones honest, don’t I?’’

Hutchins was listed as third-best in a 16-point victory over Williamstown.

You’d like a dollar for every time she’s been named in the best during her long career in women’s football.

She started it with the then-Deakin Devils (to become the Eastern Devils) and, as the major award from the Victorian Women’s Football League suggests, she had an immediate impact in the competition.

Meg Hutchins after kicking a goal for the Victorian at the 2005 women’s national championships.

Her story is similar to that of many female footballers. Before the “pathway’’ was established, Hutchins played with boys (in her case at Kew juniors), until she was told to stop.

She remembers a comment that the boys no longer wanted to tackle to her.

With no place to play, she hooked on to the Uni Blues club, running water for her brother’s team. Hutchins also took up other sports: rowing, basketball, hockey. “Whatever I could play to scratch that competitive itch,’’ she said.

But football was her great passion and she missed it.

“Oh, of course. But once you get told you can’t play and there’s no avenue for you to play, you have to do other things,’’ she said.

Uni Blues, she said, kept her involved in the sport.

“At quarter-time, half-time, three-quarter time and the end of the game I’d run around and kick goals and play around by myself!’’ she said. “It was great. That was my outlet.’’

No doubt those run-arounds on the ground helped develop her kicking, which has always been a feature of her game.

A Collingwood photo call with signings Kate Sheahan and Helen Roden. Picture: Mark Stewart

At 21, Hutchins started playing again, starting out as a centre half forward.

In just her second season she won the medal as competition best and fairest, received the first of six All-Australian selections and topped the goalkicking for her club.

Recognition kept coming even after a switch to centre half back.

When women’s exhibitions matches brought together the best players under the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne banners, she represented both clubs.

Then came the AFLW competition. Hutchins is from a family of Collingwood supporters, and the Pies employed her not only as a key defender, but as the head of their women’s operation.

Meg Hutchins celebrating a Collingwood AFLW victory.

She took her place in the inaugural match at Carlton, supporters packing out the old ground on a warm Friday night.

“Well that was an absolute dream come true,’’ she said. “It was a bit of a whirlwind. Everything was all happening. A massive head explosion, really. Overwhelming, exciting, all these emotions at the same time. To be able to pull on the black and white stripes and live out that dream I’d sort of played out in my head as a little kid, that was amazing. And pretty incredible for my family as well. I’m really thankful I was able to hold on for that long and to play in the AFLW.’’

Hutchins was in the veteran category when the AFLW kicked off. She played two seasons with the Pies before being delisted. Her many supporters thought she was more than capable of going on.

“So did I, but that’s OK,’’ she said. “If it wasn’t for that (delisting) I wouldn’t have gone to Hawthorn and won a flag.

“It was shit at the time, pardon my French. But everything happens for a reason. Like I said, if it didn’t happen I wouldn’t have been part of that flag or even had that amazing experience I had on Sunday.’’

The VFLW flag came in 2018, under the coaching of Paddy Hill.

Hill thinks the world of Hutchins, as a player and a person.

Meg Hutchins after a Hawthorn VFL finals victory in 2018.

He said this morning that his former charge had to be counted as one of the greats of Victorian women’s football.

“If you look at her size, shape, athleticism and marking ability, she’s a prototype of what we’re going to see in women’s football going forward,’’ Hill said.

“I did a little thing for her the other day for her 250th and I said, every time we talk about what women are going to look like in five years’ time with continued development, look at Meg Hutchins. Because she can play every position and she’s the best kick of a footy I’ve ever coached, male or female.’’

Hill said it was a “wonderful experience’’ to coach Hutchins, who was carried off the ground after her milestone match at the City Oval.

A long time ago the best first-year player became one of the best players in the women’s game.