Emma Burke 
Shelby McMahon [R] at Melbourne City's Premiership presentation for the 2025/26 season. Photo: Wilde Imagery/Round Ball Australia
According to goal.com, a big-game player is one that typically flies under the radar in regular fixtures, but becomes an important part of a team’s success at crucial moments.
Shelby McMahon is a big-game player.
McMahon scoring the winner in Saturday’s Semi-final in the second Melbourne Derby in as many weeks, with an unbelievable half-volley that was about to break through the net, was unsurprising to anyone familiar with her game.
In 2025, she scored another long-distance worldie against Incheon Hyundai Steel, in the dying minutes of extra time, putting her side through to the inaugural final of the AFC Women’s Champions League.
City would go on to lose the final against Wuhan Jiangda on penalties, with McMahon taking the first spot kick and converting.
The year before that, McMahon made a cameo appearance in City’s final game of the season, against Perth Glory, where she scored what would be not only the game winner, but the goal that would secure City the Premiership.
McMahon’s done all of this before even turning 18, which she finally did on Tuesday.
“I find the biggest game is the funnest,” she said, in the aftermath of the Semi-final win.
“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.
Luckily for her, she’s only got big games left to play in, the first of which is the A-League Women Grand Final against Wellington Phoenix on Saturday.
The Grand Final trophy is one that has eluded Melbourne City for the last three seasons. Despite having won the Premiership each time, they were either knocked out in the Semi-finals, or failed at the final hurdle.
“We’ve been at it for three years now and I think the results will come. We know what we have to do, we know how hard we have to battle, and I think we can, the girls have got it,” McMahon said.
Following the League final, McMahon and the rest of her City teammates will be almost immediately on a plane to Suwon, South Korea, to play in the Semi-final of the AFC Women’s Champions League against Japanese team, Tokyo Verdy Beleza.
A win there will put City into their second consecutive Final appearance in the competition.
“There’s a lot of steps to get to [the finals in the League and the ACL] so, the closer we get the more it matters in each game, so we do take each game as they come and then get ready for the big ones.”
Her head coach, Michael Matricciani, was full of compliments for the star, highlighting her maturity as a young player.
McMahon became City’s youngest ever player to reach 50 appearances this season, which happened despite her battles with injury, her games being managed due to literally growing at such a pace she had to be held back for own physical well-being, and competing with the likes of Laura Hughes, and Matildas in Leah Davidson and Leticia McKenna for game time.
“Even in setbacks,” Matricciani said, “like she had more so last season and then when she got back and some moments of me not playing her because we had [Laura Hughes] and Leah [Davidson] and other players doing really well, as a 16-year old then, the maturity that she showed was top class.”
“From day one of pre-season she has a sense of calmness and a game understanding that is very rare in that 16-17 year old. A lot of credit has to go to her parents and the way that she carries herself.”
Matricciani isn’t the only one at City ready to sing McMahon’s praises, with the side’s long-term captain Rebekah Stott saying that she knew from the start that there was just something about her.
“As soon as she came down and was in our training environment you could tell she was something special,” said Stott.
“She’s unbelievable, you just watch a game like [the Semi-final], a big game, and she comes out so solid, draws three people to the ball and gets through it, scores a banger like that, she’s such an unbelievable player, I can’t speak highly enough of her.”
“She’s learnt a lot here at City but she’s also got it, she’s got it.”
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