AFL 2022: Next four weeks will decide Michael Hurley’s football future

The next month will determine whether one of Essendon’s favourite sons can make the most remarkable of returns to football, writes Mark Robinson.

Essendon favourite Michael Hurley.

Michael Hurley is scrambling for a future.

After 13 seasons, Hurley has three VFL games to put himself in selection contention for the final game of the season, against Richmond at the MCG.

And if he plays well in those three VFL games, and if he gets a game in round 23, and if his body survives and his movement is promising, and if confidence grows with coach Ben Rutten and list manager Adrian Dodoro, and within himself, then Hurley will play in what would be a remarkable 14th season.

If none of that happens, Hurley’s career is over.

He wants to play in 2023 and the Bombers are open to that prospect.

But there’s a but.

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Michael Hurley leads the Bombers out against the Demons at Metricon Stadium in 2020.

When you’ve missed almost two seasons of football, and you’re 32, and you need to run and jump and change directions, and you need to fight and scrap and body your opponents, and you need to do it contest after contest test, the body has to be willing and capable.

Willing is not the issue, it’s the capability. And there’s the but …

So, the odds of Hurley continuing in 2023 are shortish, but that gives him a shot.

That’s all he wants. Because, at Essendon, Hurley has mostly always swam against the tide anyway.

Drafted in 2008, he emerged as an undersized key forward type, he endured the trials and tribulations of the drugs saga for five seasons, and all the while, after having been shunted from the forward line, Hurley became a dual All-Australian playing as an undersized key defender.

Hurley missed two seasons with the crippling injury.

Hurley suffered the serious setback in early 2021.

From the start, Hurley was a big, prowling and powerful player. Leigh Matthew said of him in 2009: ‘‘Very few young talls have the physical maturity to match it with their older and stronger opponents, which is why the brilliant early form of young Bomber Michael Hurley is quite amazing.”

Hurley was tough. Like, genuinely tough. And loyal. He patrolled the defensive 50 like a lion patrolled his kingdom and, like a lion, he made others feel safer and stronger.

But in recent years he’s needed to be tough in a different kind of way.

Struck down before the 2021 season with a crippling hip infection which doctors believed originated from a blister in his foot, Hurley endured many days, weeks and months wondering if he’d ever play football again.

“No one would appreciate what he’s been through because it’s out of sight out of mind, so we get on with every day,’’ his manager Paul Connors told the Herald Sun on Friday.

“But it is one of the great efforts to get back and actually play football, albeit at the moment at VFL level.’’

Many thought the Essendon favourite would never make it this far.

Hurley has been Essendon’s general in defence for many seasons.

The image of Hurley at an Essendon-Carlton practice match in February last year, having lost more than 10kg, was evidence of his struggle.

“It was confronting wasn’t it,’’ Connors said. “When we think of Michael Hurley, we think of a big, bustling, strapping full-back and seeing him on crutches and losing that weight . certainly the word is confronting.’’

Breakthrough was made this season and eventually, two weekends ago, Hurley returned to the footy field.

It was 666 days between his last game — which was round 18, 2020, against Melbourne in front of two pie sellers and a stray dog at Metricon Stadium — and his return in the VFL.

“He’s enjoying just playing again,’’ Connors said. “His whole focus is on playing week to week and it’s important for him not to think too far, but I think he’s open to playing next year.’’

The Bombers know Hurley’s potential value.

Their back group is desperately undersized and needs more vigour.

Jayden Laverde (191cm) is a competitor, and he’s being asked to be the No. 1 defender. If he was playing, Hurley (193cm) would take the No. 1 forward, Laverde the No. 2, and that would allow Zach Reid (202cm, seven games) time to develop into those roles.

That’s pipe dreaming.

Hurley has come a long way since his initial setback two years ago. Picture: Mark Stewart

Presently, Hurley has played one half in one game and three quarters in the next.

On Sunday, he will play against North Melbourne at Windy Hill and the expectation is he will pay the full four quarters.

The two VFL games after North Melbourne are against the Giants (away) and then Werribee.

That leaves the Richmond game, which can either be the start of a fairytale comeback or a farewell game.

That last option has to be considered. Rutten bungled Tom Bellchambers’ departure by not giving him a final game in 2020 and the same mistake can’t be made with the equally popular Hurley.

Hurley is not giving up just yet, and nor are the Bombers on him.

Hurley’s other issue is that romance is dead in football and the Bombers can’t put him on the list next year on the back of hope. They need conviction.

“Michael is not discounting getting into the team for that round on his own merits,’’ Connors said.

If the playing career ends, Hurley will embark on the coaching pathway, which he has kick started this year.

If his playing career continues, the lion will resume his patrol in the defensive 50. It’s a life-changing month ahead.

Originally published as AFL 2022: Next four weeks will decide Michael Hurley’s football future