2014 Round 4, Half time.

3rd April Birthdays.

Simon Black '79, Neil Busse '45, Jarrod Cotton '76, David Honybun '62, Matthew Kluzek '73, Ricky Nixon '63, Ian Roberts '57, Peter Matera '69,

Paul Williams '73

 

PLAYER OF THE DAY. Mark West, born 3rd April 1973.

Mark came to Footscray from the Darwin Buffaloes via South Adelaide. He played in the reserves at Brisbane while still a teenager then went back to South Adelaide.

Joining the Bulldogs in 1996 he showed his great skills but alas in only 16 games. His talent was on display in the 1997 finals series then a shoulder injury saw him sidelined for the early part of 1998.  After playing a number of games in the reserves he came back to the senior side just before the finals.

 

Injury struck again in 1999 keeping him out of the team for the whole season and he finished playing at the end of the year.

 Source: The Encyclopaedia of VFL/AFL Footballers.

Top Three Draft Picks 1987.



Richard Lounder number 1 selection was picked by Richmond.  He was a 203cm ruckman but despite his 4 goal game on debut he failed to shine.

After just 1 year, 4 games and 5 goals he returned to South Australia and moved away to play country football two years later.

Chris McDermott is an interesting case.  He was drafted by Brisbane but never actually even signed a contract with them.

Moving back to Glenelg in the SANFL he bided his time until being picked up by the Crows in 1991 and was the clubs first captain. He was with Adelaide until 1996 and played 117 games and kicked 25 goals.

Graham Wright was a long serving player for Collingwood in 201 games between 1988 and 1998. In that time he kicked 107 goals and was part of Collingwood's 1990 premiership team as a dashing wingman.

He played for Tasmania in the 1990 state of origin team that beat Victoria and also played one state game for Victoria.

Other notable players in that draft were Andrew Jarman (15), Brendon Gale (27) and Andrew Obst (37). 

 

Source: The Encyclopaedia of VFL/AFL Footballers and AFL Record Season Guide 2013.

 

 

Austrlian Rules in New Zealand.

The fixture game between Sydney & St.Kilda played in New Zealand in 2013 seemed to be an indication that the AFL was trying to ‘break into’ the rugby stronghold.
 

Actually, Aussie Rules in the ‘Shaky Isles’ is nothing new.  The game was introduced there around 1868 though most clubs played a hybrid game of footy/rugby/soccer but a lot of clubs ended up reverting to rugby.

By 1893 however, there were 44 clubs playing in a regular competition.  Unfortunately the outbreak of the first world war saw it end and it didn’t recover after the hostilities were over.

Tom Wright from Collingwood was one of a n umber of players that went over to try to get players to switch from rugby to Aussie Rules. There was actually a team from
New Zealand in the 1908 carnival held in Melbourne.

Melbourne Football Club toured there in 1961 and a regular competition was restarted in 1974 and there is now a national team again.

Some past VFL/AFL players that were born in New Zealand include Trent Croad, Wayne Schwass, Danny Dickfos and Warren Jones.

Source: Our Game by Jim Main and Wikipedia.

 

Kingsley Hunter - Journeyman.

Kingsley’s AFL journey started at Freemantle in 1995, not having to move far from the Claremont club where he had been playing.

He was a full forward and, despite not having the usual guile for that position, he used his strong build and leading to still be effective in the post.

When he moved to the Western Bulldogs in 1999 he had played 41 games and kicked 86 goals for the Dockers.

He was drafted to fulfil a need for a full forward at the Western Oval but did not really fire and was moved into the back line where he had played a lot of his junior football.

With the Bulldogs from 1999 to 2002 he played 57 games and scored 28 goals.

He then made a surprise move to Hawthorn for just one season in 2003.  The plan was for him to bolster the back line but a hamstring injury hampered his start to the season and he was only able to play 3 games for the year.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of VFL/AFL Footballers.