Chris Heffernan

Chris Heffernan

Personal information
Full name	Chris Joel Hefferenan
Nickname(s)	The Heff
Birth	29 January 1979 (1979-01-29) (age 32)
Recruited from	Geelong Falcons
Draft	1996: #2 (Essendon)
Height	186 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	83 kg (13 st 1 lb)
Playing career
Position(s)	Midfielder
Number	26
Club
Years	Team	Pld	G
1997–2002	Essendon	97	38
2003–2005	Melbourne	47	10
2006–2007	Essendon	26	8
	Total	170	56

Chris Joel Heffernan (born 29 January 1979) is an Australian rules footballer.

Known affectionately as "The Heff", Chris began his career in 1997 with the Essendon Football Club. Heffernan had a brilliant year in 2000 when he played solid consistent football in the midfield and was part of the amazing Bombers side that lost only one game for the entire season, winning the AFL Grand Final and Ansett Cup Final in the process. Heffernan was also rewarded with an appearance in the International rules series in 2000. Heffernan also played in another AFL Grand Final (albeit a losing one) in 2001, and moved from Essendon to the Melbourne Football Club at the end of 2002. He looked like he would be a solid acquisition by the Demons with Heffernan having great recent form under his belt.

However, that was not the case, and in what was then viewed as another "win" for Kevin Sheedy's brilliant record of trading players and getting value for his trades, Heffernan did not have the same spark at Melbourne. In 2004 he had a solid year before getting suspended and missing the finals at the end of the season, but in 2005 his performances were average. At the end of 2005 Melbourne delisted Heffernan, but Essendon picked him up with the last pick in the 2005 AFL Pre-season Draft. In this deal, Essendon picked up a player that they had already won on in the 2002 trade for next to nothing.

Heffernan believed he has returned to his spiritual home and expected to improve his football in 2006. It did. He played out the rest of his career with the Bombers, before announcing his retirement from AFL football on 2 October 2007 - at the age of just 28. Heffernan's retirement came as a shock to most due to his age, with many Bomber fans in shock he decided to end his career in the AFL so abruptly.

He played 123 games in the #26 jumper for Essendon. He played 47 games in the #1 jumper for Melbourne

External links

• Chris Heffernan's statistics from AFL Tables
• Chris Heffernan's profile on the Official AFL Website of the Melbourne Football Club

Persondata
Name	Heffernan, Chris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 January 1979
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death