2014 Round 15, Quarter time.

17th June Birthdays.

 

Leon Davis 1981.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. John Annear, born 17th June 1961.

John was first drafted to Collingwood where he played 43 games from 1981 to 1983 and kicked 28 goals.

In 1984 he moved to Richmond and over the next 3 seasons he played 65 games for 43 goals.


His next move was back to where he started his football, in Western Australia.  Having originally come from Claremont, his last VFL club was West Coast who he joined in their inaugural year of 1987.  He was there for 4 years and scored 40 goals in 58 games.  He was a high possession getter and handy around goals.


Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers.

The Febey Twins.

Matthew and Steven Febey were born on 19^th August 1969 and Steven was the first to start his football journey joining Melbourne in 1988.  He was there until 2001, playing 258 games for 40 goals.

Faced with the daunting prospect of playing on Robert Dipierdomenico in his first game, he made a good fist of it and from then on was a regular in the side.

 

He was in the Victorian team for a game against NSW in 1990 and also played for Tasmania.  In Melbourne’s Grand final team of 2000 Steven was the only player to have also played in the 1988 grand-final.

 

 

Even though they had been drafted together it took longer for Matthew to find his place at Melbourne and in fact he was delisted at one stage and then re drafted in 1992.

 

This time he made it, and by 1994 he had become an important part of the side, playing mainly on the wing.

 

When he played his 100^th game in 1997 they became the first set of twins in VFL/AFL history to have done so.

 

From 1992 to 2000 Matthew played 143 games for the Demons and kicked 44 goals. 

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers. 

 

St Kildas Badge Of Courage.
 

In 1932 St. Kilda only won 3 games, and up to round 4 of 1933 they had not won any either.  So when they lined up against North Melbourne for their round 5 encounter hopes were not high for the struggling Saints.

 

With only 1 player on the bench they could not afford many injuries, but as luck would have it they lost 3 players to serious injuries, and 1 that had a to play on with a leg problem.

From being a goal up at half time, they managed to stretch that lead to 16 points at three quarter time and even though North pushed them in the last quarter they were able to hold on for a 14 point victory.

The club was so impressed that they gave each player a special medallion with the club coat of arms on it and ever since the shield has been worn over the heart on the uniform.

Source: Our Game by Jim Main.

 

 

4 Champion Commentators.

There is a group of television Football commentators that between them played 894 games and kicked 1466 goals. So they should know what they are talking about when it comes to ‘the great game’.

Luke Darcy was at Footscray/Western Bulldogs from 1994 but was mainly used as a forward whilst he developed as a ruckman and spent increasing amounts of time on the ball until eventually becoming the teams number one ruck in 2001.

 

With a serious knee injury keeping him out for the 2006 season, from 1994 to 2005 and 2007 he played a total of 226 games and scored 183 goals, winning the club Best and Fairest in 2001.

Cameron Ling had his first game for Geelong in 2000 and from then until 2011 he was able to notch up 246 games and kick 139 goals.

He was a local Geelong boy which helped him get drafted but with the club having a strong forward line he ended up in the mid field.

Once he was able to build up his endurance he became a strong presence and as well as negating the influence of opposition players he got his fair share of possessions also.

When he retired he had 3 Premierships, 1 club Best and Fairest and once All Australian to his name.  He was also Geelong Captain in 2010-2011.

Matthew Richardson was a forward, nothing more and nothing less, and in the words of coach Tony Jewell, the fact he doesn’t chase just means he is always attacking.

In a career from 1993 to 2009 he played mainly at either full forward or a little further up the ground and scored 800 goals from his 282 games.

He was the clubs leading goal kicker on 13 occasions and on the All Australian team 3 times.  Matthew was also club Best and Fairest once.

Brian Taylor also played for Richmond in the forward line but had to share the full forward position.  However, from 1980 to 1984 he did play 43 games for the Tiger’s and kicked 156 goals.

He is probably best remembered as a Collingwood player where he spent  1985 to 1990 for 97 games and 371 goals.

Topping Collingwood’s goal kicking every year from 1985 to 1989, he won the Coleman medal in 1986, kicking exactly 100 goals for the season.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers.