MICHAEL Hibberd says he has no regrets whatsoever about shifting from Essendon to Melbourne, almost a year ago.

Hibberd, who was named in this year’s All Australian team, said moving to Melbourne was “the best decision I’ve made”.

“I’ve had such a fun year. I really enjoyed and love my footy again. I love all my new teammates and I’ve got a close bond with these guys already and it’s only going to get stronger over the next few years,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“It’s definitely a tick in terms of the decision I made to come here. Missing out on finals was disappointing but I see a lot of upside in the group that we’ve got.”

Hibberd said his honoured by his All-Australian selection, even though it was a “bittersweet” moment, which came days after Melbourne missed the finals. 

“You don’t play for that stuff, but it is nice [to be named All-Australian]. Having a year [off] and not knowing what to expect out of myself – I’d never been in that situation before – I just wanted to play the best footy that I could at my new club … and really fit in in and I felt I did that,” he said.

“I was disappointed to miss the first month as I wanted to play every game – it was a goal of mine that I had set for myself. Being named All-Australian was bittersweet in a way, as it was a tough week with missing out on finals, but I’m sure I’ll look back and be pretty proud and humbled, as I am now.

“I probably didn’t enjoy that week as much as I could have. There’s a lot of players who could have been named in that All-Australian team, so I was lucky to be picked and I’m very honoured.”

Given Hibberd battled knee and Achilles injuries early in the year, it was fine effort by the attacking defender to finish in the league’s best 22 for the year.

“After I missed the first month, I felt like it was my most consistent season,” he said.

“I had a few down games, but I feel like even after I played a bad game, I performed the following week, which was pleasing. I probably didn’t haven’t a lot of confidence in my body in the pre-season, as I didn’t do a full pre-season.

“To get through the year and play 18 games and perform quite well, I feel like it was a positive one after missing a year of footy. I’m sure I’ll look back further down the track and say that was a successful year.”

Although Hibberd found perspective in Melbourne’s 2017 season, he said it wasn’t the case when the red and blue missed the finals by 0.5 per cent.

“At the time, I was upset and angry – a lot of different emotions went through our heads,” he said.

“Now you look at it in a positive way as best you can: it will make us better, it will drive us to be better for next year and beyond that, it’s going to stick with us and it will bring us closer together as a group. In that regard, I definitely see it as a positive.

“We knew that we had an opportunity to play finals and we weren’t good enough in the end. We probably didn’t deserve to play, but we will be better for it next year. Hopefully everyone is hurting a little bit over the off-season and comes back with the fire in their belly.”

Already Hibberd is champing at the bit to get into his second season with Melbourne.

“We can get a lot better. There’s a lot things we need to work on and once we get back to pre-season, it’s all guns blazing. Everyone should be coming back in peak fitness,” he said.

“The result of missing finals should be sitting with everyone right now and we should be working to get better. Next year, everyone will have played an extra year of footy.

“There’s a lot of young players on this list who are only going to get better. We’ve got some super talented kids so next year will be a better year.”

And Hibberd said his body was in far better shape this time around compared to last year.

“I could barely finish a lap running last year. My knee was pretty sore, I struggled with that a bit. Once I was in the full-time program, I improved a lot,” he said.

“Although I did need a bit of a break at the end of the season, I was starting to get a little bit sore, I’m back running already which is a positive. I feel like my body will hold up fine.

“I’ve still got a bit of time off now so I’ll enjoy that and then I’ll get into the program when it says to get into it and be back at pre-season on day one.”

Now Hibberd said he was ready to embrace greater expectations next year.

“We need to perform and we need to play finals next year,” he said.

“The supporters deserve some success. We teased them a bit this year; we should have played finals and we didn’t.

“The expectations will lift next year and we need to embrace that as a group, take it on and make us better as players.”