MICHAEL Hibberd says it’s surreal to be entering a preliminary final with one of his best mates, Jake Melksham, given their football journey started at Essendon.
With both players enduring plenty in their time at the Dons, Hibberd said he did have “to pinch yourself a bit” when you consider how their careers got themselves to one game away from a Grand Final.
“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, the last few years, but to have a preliminary final, sitting in front of me now – it’s a surreal feeling and I can’t wait for the challenge,” he told Melbourne Media.
“It’s well-documented that Jake’s my mate and I keep hearing about him a lot, now that he’s getting a kick, but it’s good to go through these moments and experience the last two finals with a close friend like Jake, and all of the other guys as well.
“I’m really looking forward to Saturday [against West Coast at Optus Stadium].”
Hibberd, who was one of Melbourne’s best in its first semi-final win over Hawthorn at the MCG last week, said he felt he produced “a good balanced game”.
“We’ve been working with Troy Chaplin, the backline coach, and a lot about the balance of my game – defence versus attack,” he said.
“I felt like I defended quite well and I won a bit of the ball on the back of strong defence. I think all of our defenders had a real focus on that over the year and we’ve seen some really good seasons out of Neville Jetta and Christian Salem – they’ve played well on the big stage in the past two finals.
“Hopefully we’ll carry our form into that.”
Hibberd acknowledged it would be a tough test to beat the Eagles at home, but he was confident the Demons could do it again, like they did in round 22.
“We played them just over a month ago and we won, but they’re a different outfit now and they’ve got [Josh] Kennedy back and [Jack Darling] went down really early in that game,” he said.
“We’re under no illusions that they’re going to be a bit sharper this time around, and we’re going to have to play at our best.
“West Coast over there, in front of their home crowd, on the big stage of the prelim, it’s going to be hard, so we’re going to have to play our best.”
