Jake Melksham on his Essendon days, joining Melbourne and his best mate Michael Hibberd
Jake Melksham was ready to sign a new deal at Essendon. But as he was forced to wait and wait on an offer from the club, a phone call from a rival changed everything. This is how the former top 10 pick ended up at Melbourne.
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In January I was best man at Michael Hibberd’s wedding and he was at mine not long after.
We go back to our early days together at Essendon, which feels like a long time ago.
I got to the club a year before him, but when we arrived it was clear we both had a lot in common.
Initially he was living in Maribyrnong with David Myers and a few other teammates, and I was living in Pascoe Vale with our good mate Tayte Pears.
I was pretty keen for him to come live with us, but Pearsy joked that if he did all of our careers would be cut short quite significantly.
We had a good connection straight away and we played a fair bit of footy together at Essendon and our connection just grew over the years.
We’re very tight and the past few weeks have been very difficult for Michael and his family.
As a mate I’ve just tried to be there as much as possible while at the same time trying not to smother him.
It’s been fortunate we’ve been able to stay teammates throughout our careers, and across two clubs.
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When I went to Melbourne at the end of 2015, he was still contracted to Essendon for 2016.
So he had that year off and I was in his ear a lot to come to the Dees to get a fresh start.
I explained to him it was the breath of fresh air I needed and he made the call to come across.
I wasn’t sure if he was going to, but I’m bloody glad he did.
EARLY DAYS
I grew up in the Glenroy/Oak Park area and played footy there from an early age.
Dad played at Oak Park and I played all my juniors there.
It was very much Bomber territory and my dad and all the Melkshams barracked for them.
Although I followed North Melbourne, mainly because Oak Park wore the same strip as the Roos.
It was also hard not to love Wayne Carey in full flight.
I played with the Calder Cannons in the TAC Cup for three years with the first year as a 16-year-old.
One of the highlights was playing in the last TAC Cup grand final to be played at the MCG on Grand Final morning in 2007.
In 2009 our team was pretty stacked, including the likes of Mitch Wallis, Tom Liberatore, Dion Prestia and Jake Carlisle.
I ended up going at pick No.10 and was pretty fortunate to go as early as I did. A solid finals series made all the difference.
Heading into the draft, the talk was it was down to Port Adelaide and Essendon.
The Power had picks No.8 and No.9 and Essendon was at No.10.
I was happy to go to Port, I would have gone anywhere to live out my childhood dreams.
But then my manager rang me the night before the draft and said “you’re going to Essendon.”
Ironically I was actually in Essendon at the time having dinner when I got the call.
“What? Are you serious?” I replied.
“Yep, they’re going to take you,” he said.
I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want the family to get excited and for it to fall through.
At the draft I was the first name called out because they announced the top 10 in reverse order.
I remember walking up to the stage the wrong way to be handed my Bombers jumper.
EARLY DAYS AT WINDY HILL
When I reflect on my AFL career to now, I feel like I’ve lived two completely different lives.
Today I’m at Melbourne and I’m married with two children and my lifestyle is very different to what it was.
Those first six years at Essendon absolutely flew by.
When I was at Essendon I was young, didn’t have a family, I wasn’t married and didn’t have any of that going on.
Early on at the Bombers, Jason Winderlich and Andrew Welsh were the ones to really take me under their wing.
My debut was against Carlton and I shared my first game with fellow debutant Travis Colyer.
I ran through the banner with him and remember there were about 60 or 70,000 people in the house.
I’ll never forget the day because we were down at three-quarter time and Kyle Reimers kicked three goals in the last quarter for us to win.
It wasn’t unlike Kyle to do that.
I loved being at the club, but on the footy side of things it probably took me a little bit of time to get going.
I had really good coaches and people around me.
But for whatever reason it took me a bit longer to grasp the game and to adapt to playing at a good level.
I’m sure the club would have liked it to have been a little bit more fast-tracked, but it wasn’t to be.
SUPPLEMENTS SAGA
I’ve moved on from the supplements saga.
It was a big part of my time at Essendon and there was a lot of adversity we all went through during that time.
It was being reported every day in the paper and it was constantly on the TV.
I had family asking me questions about it. Everywhere you went that’s what people talked about.
It dragged on for such a long time, but you just have to move on.
I’m not bitter or resentful.
I’ve found if you dwell on the past you’ll never find peace.
Last year good mate Jobe Watson was doing some commentary around finals time and it was great to see him back involved in the game.
Time heals a lot of things.
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LEAVING THE DONS
By 2015 I felt like I wasn’t getting the best out of myself as a player.
I needed a fresh start and the supplements saga was probably the last straw in making my decision.
I was ready to actually sign a new deal if it was on the table, but for whatever reason they were waiting out to the end of the year with all of us.
There were about 15 of us all out of contract in the same boat.
That’s when the call came from Simon Goodwin, a good friend who had been the midfield coach at Essendon before being appointed senior coach at the Demons.
He invited me around for dinner and asked me: ‘What are you thinking? What do you want to do with your career? What do you want to get out of yourself?’
That was the chat I needed to hear because I would have quite easily signed a new deal at Essendon just to secure my future.
Who knows, maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now had I stayed.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
I felt a different vibe the second I first walked into Melbourne.
It was a lot straighter and more serious.
During my last year and a half at Essendon, because we’d dealt with so much adversity there was a little bit of that us against them mentality.
We were sort of a bit more galvanised as a group and close knit off the field.
It was our only sort of outlet at times, because you couldn’t escape the situation.
When I got to Melbourne, I felt like the group was less jovial and a little bit straighter.
After that I felt Maxy Gawn, Hibberd, Goody and myself tried to lighten the mood a bit.
These days I’d say it’s a lot more enjoyable to be around.
And I know there are guys like Tom McDonald and Nathan Jones who would vouch for that as well.
The culture of the club has changed for the better.
I know we haven’t had a great deal of success in recent times, but we played in that preliminary final in 2018 and that certainly whet the appetite for the group.
To get that far into a season was pretty special, and we’re determined to get back there.
Originally published as Jake Melksham on his Essendon days, joining Melbourne and his best mate Michael Hibberd
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