2014 Round 2, Quarter time.

18th March Birthdays.

Mark P Williams 1964.

PLAYER OF THE DAY. Matthew Clucas, born 18th March 1978.

Matthew started his footballing journey at East Freemantle and was drafted by the Freemantle Dockers in 1997. From then until his delisting in 1999 he could only manage to play 11 games and scored 1 goal. He did however fare better in the WAFL where he was South Freemantle's Best & Fairest winner in 2001 and part of their premiership team in 2005.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers and Wikepedia.


Change of posts for End To End Footy.

From this week there will be three posts of End To End Footy per week, late Monday for Tuesday, late Wednesday for Thursday and Saturday for the bumper weekend edition. 

This will allow me to leave the posts up for at least two days giving more people a chance to see them 'live' rather than having to go into the blog archive.

Each post will now actually have more great Aussie Rules facts and trivia for you to enjoy.


A Team Of Champions.

In his book 'The Champions' Ben Collins talks to 24 greats of the game, both players and coaches, and makes up his champion team.  Today we are going to look at the back 6 in this all time team.

                                        Stephen Silvagni.
                                        Carlton 1985-2001.
                                      312 games 202 goals.
                                           2 premierships. 
                         1 Jim Stynes Medal (international series)
                                        7 times All Australian.


                 Glen Archer.                                    Neil Kerley.
      North Melbourne 1992-2007.             West Adelaide 1952, 1956-63.
           311 games 143 goals.                      South Adelaide 1964-66.
                2 premierships.                                Glenelg 1967-69.
           1 Norm Smith medal.                    260 games 123 goals (total).
           2 times All Australian.                          1 time All Australian.
                                                                
                                                             
                                                          Glen Jakovich.                                
                                  West Coast Eagles 1991-2004.
                                        276 games 60 goals.
                                            2 premierships.
                                     Player of the finals 1995.
                                       2 times All Australian.
 
                Kevin Murray.                                   Gavin Wanganeen.
         Fitzroy 1955-64, 1967-74.                           Essendon 1991-96.
             333 games 51 goals.                              127 games 64 goals.
              East Perth 1965-66.                           Port Adelaide 1997-2006.
               44 games 20 goals.                             173 games 138 goals.
                1 Brownlow Medal.                               1 Brownlow Medal.           
               1 Night Premiership.                                2 Premierships.
              2 times All Australian.                          1 Michael Tuck Medal.
                                                                         5 times All Australian.

Source: The Champions & The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.


The Nichols Medal.

The Nichols Medal is the Best & Fairest award for the Northern Territory League.  It was named after Joseph W Nichols MBE who was an administrator of football in the Northern Territory.

Having served overseas in the Australian Light Horse regiment he moved to the Territory in 1926 to take up the position of Police clerk and was appointed Sherriff of The Northern Territory in 1933. 

The Best & Fairest has been awarded since 1947 and has been named the Nichols Medal since 1949.
Source: Wikipedia


'Spider' Everitt.

Peter 'Spider' Everitt was drafted to St. Kilda in 1993 where he stayed until 2002 and played 180 games, scoring 299 goals.  He was recognised as a good mobile ruckman, naturally gifted and a beautiful kick for goal.  Unfortunately he was slow to get going due to his attitude and overall he had an up and down time at the Saints due to injury and form. During his time there he did however manage to be part of the 1996 night premiership team and the clubs best & fairest in 2001. 

In 2003 he joined Hawthorn and played 72 games up until 2006 and kicked 67 goals. He started off very positively before injuries again hampered his game tally.  2004 and 2005 were his best years at the club when he was rated as probably the best ruckman in the competition. Peter won the Best & Fairest in 2004 and came second in 2005.

Moving to Sydney in 2007 he served them well in 39 games for 17 goals before age caught up with him and he retired at the end of 2008.

He also represented Victoria on 3 occasions, 1997, 1998 and 2005.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.


The Professors.

The University football club nicknamed 'the professors' or 'the students' joined the VFL in 1908, but alas they only survived until 1914.  It was probably on the cards that they would not be overly competitive as they obviously had a large turnover of players as people came and left the university and the pressures of study.  Of the 112 players who represented the club in 7 years only 1 managed to clock up over 100 games (101).

Overall they won 27, lost 97 and drew 2 games.  They did however beat all the other teams at least once, except for Collingwood with whom they managed a draw.  From 1911 to 1914 they only won two games and finished bottom of the ladder.

They did have a number of players who gained Victorian selection and at least 2 went on to play with other clubs.  Jack Brake was a follower and played 81 games for them before moving to Melbourne where he played in 1915 and again from 1919 to 1921 after serving in the armed forces. 

Edgar Kneen was a wingman/forward who was co captain in 1908 and 1910 and was part of Fitzroys premiership team in 1904. 

Source: The Clubs (The complete history of every club in the VFL/AFL).


The Draft.

If you are anything like me the whole draft system is quite difficult to understand.  There are things like father and son selections and allowances for 'expansion' clubs etc.  But I hope to make it a little clearer as I explain how the basic draft works.

Introduced in 1986 the draft system helps in the evening out of the national competition by making each club have at least 3 selections at the initial draft.  This of course means that they have to delist at least 3 players each year.

The rookie draft came into being in 1997 enabling clubs to nominate players between the ages of 18 and 23 who could be upgraded to the primary (main) list of players should another player be put on the long term injury list.

Then in 2007 the AFL started the mature aged rookie system which is for players over the age of 23.  Initially for a player to be considered he must not have been on a primary or rookie list at any club.  This was however altered in 2010 to allow previous AFL players to be included.  Hence the players such as Heath Scotland who has played for many years on both Collingwood and Carltons primary lists now being on Carltons 'rookie' list.

Source: AFL Record Season Guide 2013.