2014 Round 17, Three quarter time.

5th July Birthdays.

 

Haydn Bunton 1911.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Michael Gardiner, born 5th July 1979.

Michael played 10 seasons at the West Coast Eagles from 1997 to 2006 in 129 games for 87 goals. 

A local boy, coming from Claremont, he had to fill the role of number 1 ruck at the club in his first year.  This didn't seem to faze him at all and he soon became one of the top ruckmen in the league.

His time at West Coast ended in controversial circumstances and he moved to St. Kilda where he did not manage to play his first game until 2008. Between 2008 and 2010 he played in 51 games for the Saints and kicked 23 goals.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.

John Barker – Journeyman.

John started his football journey at Fitzroy in 1993 but was not able to play his first game until 1994 and even then he suffered with back problems for that year and the next.

In 1996 he actually started playing more regularly but then the club folded and merged with the Brisbane Bears. Whilst at Fitzroy he played 47 games and scored 12 goals.

As one of the players to move north with the merger, he didn’t have a very good year in 1997, playing just 8 games and scoring 1 goal.

Though he had played most of his junior football as a forward, he was used mainly in the back line at senior level, and when he moved to Hawthorn in 1998 this trend continued.

By 2000 John had hit his straps and being moved up the ground he showed his talent as a strong marking forward.

Unfortunately the last couple of years of his career weren’t as productive and he finished with Hawthorn at the end of 2006 after playing 113 games for 114 goals.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.

Good Lord, Which One Was It?

Stewart and Alistair Lord were twins who played for Geelong in the early 1960’s.

In a game against Richmond in 1962 Alistair got in a tangle with a Richmond player, but as the boundary umpire approached he darted back into the play.

At half time he said to his brother he thought the umpire may be going to report him, so if an opportunity arose go hard at the same Richmond player.

As it happened there was some push and shove at one stage and the Richmond player went down.  The umpire ran in and said he was reporting the Lord brother thinking it was the same one as earlier in the game, but it wasn’t.

When the case got to the tribunal they pleaded miss identification and the case was dismissed, as they couldn’t clearly establish which brother was guilty.

It turned out to be a very lucky call for Alistair as he went on to win the 1962 Brownlow Medal.

Source: The Greatest Game by Ken Piesse.
 

 

Mark Williams-Coach and Player.

Mark holds the honour of being Port Adelaide’s longest serving and only AFL Premiership  coach.

The son of Port Adelaide legend ‘Fos’ Williams, he started his VFL career at Collingwood in 1981 and was there until 1986.  In that time he played 135 games and kicked 178 goals.

Showing his football pedigree, this no nonsense, hard at it player won the clubs Best and Fairest and Victorian selection in his first year.  By his third season he was Captain of the Magpies and won another B & F in 1985.

Contract difficulties saw him move to fledgling club Brisbane in 1987, where he again gave good service in 66 games up until the end of 1990, kicking 58 goals.

When he finished playing he approached Collingwood for an assistant coaching position but when he got no reply he went to Essendon.

1999 saw him appointed head coach at Port and during his 274 games there he was able to guide the team to the top of the ladder in 2002 and 2003, but they were not able to make the Grand Final.  Then in 2004 they finally managed to win the Premiership.

For the record, his 274 games at Port included 151 wins, 2 draws and 121 losses.  A winning percentage of 55%. Of these games, 17 were finals.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers and AFL Record Season Guide 2013.
 

 

1991 National Draft Top 3.

John Hutton was number 1 in this years’ draft and joined Brisbane where he played 18 games in 1992 for 43 goals.

In 1993 he joined Sydney where for the one season was in 5 games and kicked 9 goals.

1995 found him at Fremantle and here he played 13 games for 27 goals.

Number 2 was Marcus Seecamp who was selected by Fitzroy where he spent 3 seasons (1992-1994), playing 51 games for 10 goals.

In 1995 he was traded to Melbourne where he was a valuable defender in 89 games.  He also managed to kick 8 goals before ending his career in 2000.

Being from WA he represented that state in 3 state of origin games.

Darren Kowal rounded out the top 3 that year and from 1992 to 1999 was at the Melbourne Football Club where he played 105 games for 46 goals.

He was used in a few roles at the Demon’s, starting as a mid-fielder then as a tight back-man and also as a ‘run with’ player.

Interestingly, in that draft, the top 7 players were all from WA with all but Marcus Seecamp coming from Claremont.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers and AFL Record Season Guide 2013.