With the 2026/27 Ninja A-League season just a week away, aleagues.com.au sat down with Melbourne City young gun Shelby McMahon as City bid to defend both their Premiership and Championship crowns…
At the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup a 15-year-old Shelby McMahon was inside Suncorp Stadium to watch Cortnee Vine’s iconic penalty against France.
Just over three years later, McMahon is entering her fourth Ninja A-League season and calling Vine a teammate.
“Not at all to be honest,” McMahon, now 18, said when asked if she ever imagined her and Vine would one day be teammates.
TRANSFER CENTRE: Ninja A-League 2026/27 Transfer Centre: Your club’s moves
(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
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“I was in the stands for that one. It was unbelievable.
“To see [Vine] coming along, it’s awesome. It’s great to have her a part of the team.
“For us as at City, but then I also think for the league, she’ll have a massive impact on the quality.
“As long as she’s happy, comfortable and playing her best football, I think everyone benefits from it.”
McMahon launched into the Ninja A-League just months after the conclusion of the 2023 World Cup when in January 2024 she moved from her home on the Gold Coast to join Melbourne City as an injury replacement player.
A flying start to her career of seven games and two goals in that initial run led to a permanent spot in the City squad, where McMahon has totted up 41 appearances, three premierships and a championship.
The midfielder has also shown an appetite for the big occasion, having scored two of her six goals in A-League finals in addition to scoring in both the AFC Women’s Champions League semi-final and final in 2025.
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It’ll be an all-Gold Coast midfield of sorts for City at times this season, with the arrival of Japanese player Momo Hayashi from Brisbane Roar.
Hayashi spent six seasons playing NPLW for Gold Coast United before the Roar signed her for the 2024/25 campaign.
“We have talked about Gold Coast United because I played for Gold Coast Knights,” McMahon said.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“So there’s a big rivalry there.
“We always just talk about the weather and the beach. ‘It’s 28 degrees on the Gold Coast at the moment and 13 here [in Melbourne]’.
“But yeah it’s been nice, good to be familiar.
“A lot of the signings were very surprising. Good surprises, of course, but [Hayashi] was such a big part of Brisbane, so it’s been awesome to see her in training and see what she’s like day to day.”
Rivals around the A-League becoming new teammates has been a theme of the Melbourne City off-season, with Melina Ayres joining from Newcastle, Avaani Prakash from Central Coast, Taylor Ray from Melbourne Victory and Aimee Medwin from Brisbane Roar.
TRANSFER CENTRE: Ninja A-League 2026/27 Transfer Centre: Your club’s moves
Medwin’s one-on-one duel in a match with Aideen Keane last season – which culminated in Medwin conceding a penalty for a foul on Keane and Keane getting booked for a foul on Medwin – had stuck in McMahon’s memory in particular.
“Everyone’s always a bit different on and off the field,” McMahon said.
“So it’s really nice to meet everybody and get to know them personally.
“I think in our last Brisbane game, Aimee Medwin and Aideen Keane, you know, they had a bit of a biff.
“But Aimee’s lovely and they’re they’re getting along really well. So yeah it’s so funny to see.”
McMahon was part of the Young Matildas team that played in the AFC U20 Asian Cup in April, a campaign that ended in the quarter-finals with defeat to North Korea.
While City’s team objectives as defending Premiers and Champions need no explaining, McMahon’s personal ambitions are fuelled by that experience in green and gold.
“It’s a big dream,” McMahon said of a senior Matildas call-up.
“But you’ve got to do it [dream].
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
“That’s something I always think about, there’s always steps and moving forward and knowing my role in City and also being myself.
“There’s no reason why I and anybody else in the 20s and anybody else around the league can’t think that they can make it.”
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Melbourne City kick off their Premiership and Championship defences with a Grand Final rematch against Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand on Sunday, October 18.
