Lavington premiership player Macca Hallows wins spot on Essendon VFL list

The classy forward was added to Essendon's VFL list on Monday night.

"It means heaps, I moved down here at the end of last year for this, I was already going to move down at some stage, but I dropped everything, work, and all the money I had saved up, I've used a lot of that, it's really exciting to be part of a VFL list and especially at Essendon, which is one of the strongest clubs," he revealed.

Hallows played in Lavington's shock win over Wangaratta in 2019, just days after his 17^th birthday, and in only his 13^th senior game.

He didn't play in his final year of schooling, due to COVID wiping out the season, but played seven of the Panthers' 13 games in last year's COVID-shortened season, along with nine at the Murray Bushrangers at junior representative level.

Essendon coach Brent Stanton then invited him to a do a pre-season.

"Before 'Chrissie' (Christmas) it was not too bad, but I started doing alright at the start of this year," he explained.

"Brent met with me at the start of this year, he met with everybody actually, and said, 'we're not sure if you will get a contract', but, if not, he just wanted me to be a train-on player for the rest of the year, so I was pretty surprised when they said on Monday I was going to get a contract."

Hallows is a clever player, with the ability to manufacture something with his goal sense and pace.

He played his first VFL pre-season game against Collingwood last weekend and a former Murray Bushranger and now Essendon team-mate believes it was that performance which won him a spot.

"He's had a really good pre-season and had a really good game and got a contract off that," Cam McLeod suggested.

The 19-year-old was different to Hallows in that he already had a contract when he fronted for pre-season.

"It's a good opportunity, the aim is to play AFL and this is probably the best way of doing it, just with the professionalism and it's the highest level outside the AFL and you're in an AFL environment," he offered.

McLeod played in an AFL intraclub match and has since had two VFL practice games, against the Bulldogs and Pies.

A chiropractic student at RMIT University in Bundoora, McLeod is likely to play as the third tall forward at 193cms.

"I'll be that linking player through the middle of the ground, getting the ball going forward," he explained.

McLeod won the Bushrangers goalkicking award last season and played at Albury, when free of representative commitments.

However, he's also joined another EDFL outfit as his second club in Avondale Heights.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Bombers start their season away to Geelong on Saturday, March 26.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: