2014 Round 12, Three quarter time.

31st May Birthdays.

 

Justin Madden 1961.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Brett Bowey, born 31sth May 1969.

Brett has the honour of debuting with  St. Kilda great Robert Harvey, after he was drafted in 1988.  He was with the club until 1994 and playing 85 games as a rover he kicked 79 goals. 

In 1989 and 1990 he played 19 games each season, but in 1991 that number dropped back to just 4. 1992, however, was a great year where he amassed 482 disposals for the season at an average of 22.95 per game and had 27 against Collingwood during the finals series.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers.

 

The Cracking Krakoeurs.

There is no doubt that Aboriginal footballers seem to be a cut above the rest when it comes to skills and doing the unexpected on the field.  But for understanding between players it would be hard to go past the Karakouer brothers.

Jim was the older of the two and had 8 years with North Melbourne from 1982 to 1989 and played 134 games for 229 goals.

He was one of those players that seems to pop up in the right place at the right time to get the ball and punish the opposition.

Winning the clubs Best and Fairest in 1986 he also shared the honour of being the clubs top goal scorer with his brother in 1983 and won again in 1986 and 1988.

Moving to St. Kilda in 1990 he was there for 2 seasons and notched up 13 games and 7 goals.

 

Phil was a little different to his brother as he liked to ‘get in amongst it’ rather than playing loose.

He also started at North in 1982 and was there until 1989 playing 141 games for 224 goals. Such good players were they both that North had to fight off other clubs to get their signatures.

Not only did Phil share the goal kicking record with his brother in 1983, he won it himself in 1985 and 1987.

Again, like Jim, he moved on at the end of 1989, but he went to Footscray where he played 7 games for 7 goals in 1991.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers & Wikipedia.

 

Andrew McLeod – Norm Smith Medalist.

Not only did Adelaide win their 2 premierships in 1997 and 1998, Andrew McLeod was judged best on ground in both of them.

Originally on Freemantle’s list he never made their team and was traded to Adelaide in 1995. It looked at first like Freemantle’s opinion of him may have been right as his first year was not outstanding.

However, in 1997 he looked like a new player and became an integral part of the back line including a Premiership that gave him his first Norm Smith.  He also won the Club Champion award that year.

1998 saw him have another fine season, again capped off by a flag and a second Norm Smith.  This time he had been able to go forward and use his pace to great effect.

He was with the Crows from 1995 to 2010 and played a wonderful 340 games and kicked 275 goals.  As well as the Norm Smith medals he was the clubs Best and Fairest 3 times, All Australian 5 times and in the Indigenous All Stars team 3 times.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers & Wikipedia.

Marn Grook.

The term Marn Grook is Aboriginal for 'game ball' and it is quite likely that this sport had an influence on the basics of Australian Rules football.

Tom Wills had grown up in the Western district of Victoria and had spent time observing and interacting with the local Indigenous people.

Their game, played with a stuffed Possum hide, did not seem to have any real purpose other than fun and fitness.  Sides quite often represented creatures such as eagle or crow that were important to the tribe or clan the team was made up from.

An observation made by William Thomas, a Protector of Aborigines in Victoria, drew many similarities to the way our game is played, such as leaping to catch the ball, running with it and dropping to the foot to kick.

This game was also played over a large area by teams of many people and could go for hours, once again very similar to early games of Aussie rules.

Source: Wikipedia. 

 

Michael Long – Hall Of Fame.

Michael was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2007 in recognition of a wonderful career with the Essendon Football Club.

With them from 1989 to 2001, he played in 190 games for 143 goals and was blessed with speed and agility.

It was not all smooth sailing for Michael and after the teams 1993 flag win, where he won the Norm Smith Medal, he had to have a knee reconstruction in 1994. This made him so low that he went back to Darwin and it took some convincing to get him to return to Melbourne.

Luckily he did go back and 1995 was another great year where he poled 16 votes in the Brownlow Medal.

He was in another Premiership team in 2000 and was All Australian twice and played 4 State of Origin games.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers & AFL Record Season Guide 2013.