Shelby McMahon, a prodigy for the big occasions
As Melbourne City chase history in Saturday's ALW grand final, one of their keys may just represent Aussie football's future. But Shelby McMahon has already proven she's ready for the big stage.
Some players will go their entire careers hoping to score a goal that will linger long in the memory. And, cruelly, most will never actually get to experience such a moment. Melbourne City prodigy Shelby McMahon, though, isn’t most footballers; given that the teenager has scored almost half a dozen such goals before her 18th birthday.
Setting up behind Melbourne Victory’s attempt to head clear at the top of the box and stinging a wicked half-volleyed effort into the net, McMahon provided the pivotal strike in City’s 2-0 aggregate semifinal win over City’s derby foes on Saturday, combining with Leticia McKenna’s free kick from the first leg to put the tie to bed. Going some way towards exorcising the demons of a heartbreaking semifinal loss at Casey Fields a year ago by sending them through to the decider, the sweetly taken attempt and the stakes involved not only belied the 17-year-old’s tender age but also kept her side’s quest for a historic treble alive.
Not bad. And that’s even before one remembers that this goal was just the latest in a string of efforts in which McMahon has delivered on the biggest stage for City.
On the final day of the 2023-24 A-League Women season, the then-15-year-old popped up in the 89th-minute to score the goal that secured a 2-1 win over Perth Glory and, with it, the first of what would become three-straight premierships for City.
A year on, the now-16-year-old midfielder became the hero of her side’s AFC Women’s Champions League semi-final against Incheon Red Angels when she wound up from 25-yards out and thundered a 94th-minute effort into the top corner to deliver a 1-0 win. She then followed that up by putting her side up in the final against Wuhan Jiangda and, when the Chinese outfit forced penalties, slotted the first spot kick – forced to watch on as Zhao Yuxin sealed victory for the hosts five attempts later.
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The trend seems pretty obvious. When City needs a goal in the big games, McMahon is one of their better bets.
“I find the biggest game is the funnest,” the teenager says. “The pressure’s on. Our confidence comes from preparing, and we prepare for big games. So that’s just my mentality going in. I just love them; they’re my favourite games. So I guess come alive in them.
“There’s no point putting pressure on extra games, because if I play the way I want to, and we play as a team, then it’s just another game, and we’ve got to get the result either way. So that’s how I feel about it.”
This Saturday, of course, marks another big game; City hosting Wellington in the A-League Women grand final and, after two years of disappointment, looking to complete the A-League Women double – before their thoughts turn to a potential treble when they fly to Suwon for the final four of this year’s Champions League.
Given their age profile and the point they’re at in their careers, it’s anticipated, albeit not confirmed, that players such as Holly McNamara, Leah Davidson, and Laura Hughes will be playing their final A-League Women's games, with overseas opportunities beckoning either as free agents or in the transfer market. And in much the same way the door was opened for this cohort when City’s galacticos departed following the 2020 decider, this would ostensibly clear the way for the likes of McMahon, Alexia Apostolakis, and Dani Butrus to emerge as the new torchbearers.
The Queenslander – recruited to City from the Gold Coast Knights – has always been earmarked for big things at the club, right down to when then-coach Dario Vidošić excitedly remarked that she was the best trialist he’d ever seen shortly before she signed as an injury replacement player for McNamara in 2024. The youngest player in City history to log 50 games, she’s literally grown up at Casey Fields – training staff at one point needing to shut her down simply because she was growing so fast they needed to manage her physical loads – and represented Australia at both a U17 and U20 level along the way.
“As soon as she came down and was in our training environment, you could tell she was something special,” skipper Rebekah Stott remarks. “She’s just such a great character to have around the team. Her mindset is unbelievable. I think she has learnt a lot here at City, but she’s also got it. She’s got it. She’s unreal.”
“She’s unbelievable. You just watch a game like [the semifinal], a big game, and she comes out so solid, draws three people to the ball and gets through it to score a banger like that. She’s such an unbelievable player. I can’t speak highly enough of her.”
Indeed, to watch McMahon in action is to almost invite a level of hypocrisy.
On the one hand, it’s in no way fair to expect any young player, let alone one that’s not even 18, to become an international in the future. So many things, plenty of outside of their control, can alter the trajectory of a player’s career, and there’s literally no higher or more difficult peak for an Australian player to summit than representing the Matildas or Socceroos.
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Yet at the same time, when you see what the teenager has already accomplished in her career to date and how she carries herself on the field, and then pair that with the knowledge she’s still got plenty of potential to tap into, it’s hard not to envision her one day playing for the senior national team.
Fortunately, watching her on the pitch, she seems pretty unflappable. And her coach sees that off the park, too.
“A very good upbringing,” Michael Matricciani explains. “A lot of credit needs to go to her parents and the way they’ve brought her up as a top, humble [person], who understands what it takes to be a pro.
“From day one of pre-season, she has a sense of calmness and game understanding that, you know, is very rare in a 16-, 17-year-old. A lot of credit has to go to her parents, and the way she carries herself
“She’s a talented footballer. It’s sort of a bit of a common theme: her doing it in big games. And throughout the course of the year, she’s been outstanding, along with all our players. So, really proud of her.”