Discussion Unusual short playing careers

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GrahamClayton

GrahamClayton

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Feb 1, 2015
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Robert Keeble’s St Kilda VFL career was the first 2 games of the 1985 VFL season. Unfortunately for Keeble, both games ended with the Saints losing by over 100 points:
Round 1 – Sydney 26.20 (176) defeated St Kilda 8.18 (66)
Round 2 – Carlton 25.19 (169) defeated St Kilda 2.17 (29)

Eddie Ford's 4 game career for Richmond in the VFL consisted of a game each against Melbourne and Collingwood in 1942, and another pair of games against the same opponents in 1943.

Ern Hazel played only 19 games in the VFL, but he was able to play for a premiership winning team (Essendon 1911) and a wooden spoon team - (St Kilda 1909 & 1910).

Chris Aitken's 14 games for Melbourne in the VFL were spread over 3 seasons covering 10 years - 1967 (4 games), 1969 (7 games) and 1977 (3 games).

Pat Murphy made his St Kilda debut against Collingwood in Round 10 of the 1966 VFL season. Unfortunately for Murphy, he loses his contact lenses in the dressing rooms prior to the game, and is dragged from the ground during the third quarter, and never plays another VFL game.

Jim Cullen's 3 game career in the VFL was a game with three different clubs - Essendon and South Melbourne in 1899, and Carlton in 1904.

Would forum members have other examples of unusual short playing careers?

 

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Luke Lowden. Played 1 game for Hawthorn as a back up ruckman. Kicked 3 goals and had a pretty decent debut. 12 disposals, 15 hitouts, 2 tackles and 81 Supercoach points. Dropped the next week and was subsequently traded to Adelaide. Never played a game and was delisted last year I believe. 1 career game and nothing else. Always felt for the bloke.
 
Supermercado said:
There was a St Kilda player (name escapes) who had one game as an unused bench player.
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I hope to finalise my research into unused VFL reserves 1930 - 1977 before end of the year
(need to get to Melbourne to check post-Trove Sp Globe & Herald),
but at the moment there appear to be 40 plus players who spent at least one match entirely on the bench,
eight of them indeed having TWO full games unused !
 
Supermercado said:
There was a St Kilda player (name escapes) who had one game as an unused bench player.
Click to expand...

Are you thinking of Chris Hemley from 1995 perhaps?

Hemley was selected by the Saints from the Geelong Falcons at Pick 17 in the National Draft, a draft that was very fruitful for St. Kilda. However early draft selection Hemley played just one game for St. Kilda in a loss to the Adelaide Crows in Round 18, where he had no statistics for the day (not sure how much, if any game time he played) and was delisted at season end. He was later drafted by Geelong in the late 1990s, but played no senior matches for the Cats.
 
emuboy said:
Are you thinking of Chris Hemley from 1995 perhaps?

Hemley was selected by the Saints from the Geelong Falcons at Pick 17 in the National Draft, a draft that was very fruitful for St. Kilda. However early draft selection Hemley played just one game for St. Kilda in a loss to the Adelaide Crows in Round 18, where he had no statistics for the day (not sure how much, if any game time he played) and was delisted at season end. He was later drafted by Geelong in the late 1990s, but played no senior matches for the Cats.
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Nah this was in the 60s or 70s. There's a book of football essays that I can't find my copy of anywhere and one of them is by the player in question.
 

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Ken Kendall made his senior debut in University's first VFL game in 1908 against Essendon, and Marc Lock played his first senior match in the Gold Coast's debut AFL match against Carlton at the GABBA in 2011.

Neither Kendall nor Lock played senior football again, giving them the unusual distinction of their only games being in the first matches of expansion teams.
 
emuboy said:
Ken Kendall made his senior debut in University's first VFL game in 1908 against Essendon, and Marc Lock played his first senior match in the Gold Coast's debut AFL match against Carlton at the GABBA in 2011.

Neither Kendall nor Lock played senior football again, giving them the unusual distinction of their only games being in the first matches of expansion teams.
Click to expand...

On the subject of Lock (and Keeble), how many players had their one and only appearance in a +100 point thumping?
 
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Supermercado said:
On the subject of Lock (and Keeble), how many players had their one and only appearance in a +100 point thumping?
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One I know off hand is St Kilda's Wal Heron, who played his first and only game in the infamous 23.24.162 to 0.1-1 thrashing that Geelong handed to St. Kilda in the last round of 1899. After this debacle, I wonder if Heron was plagued by nightmares about cats for the rest of his life?
 
emuboy said:
One I know off hand is St Kilda's Wal Heron, who played his first and only game in the infamous 23.24.162 to 0.1-1 thrashing that Geelong handed to St. Kilda in the last round of 1899. After this debacle, I wonder if Heron was plagued by nightmares about cats for the rest of his life?
Click to expand...
But his great great grandson kicked the winning point in the 1966 Grand Final, TRUE or FALSE.
 
David Ogg in 1990 played in the Swan Districts WAFL premiership team, then after being drafted by Brisbane played in the Bears 1991 Reserves premiership. Some players never experience premiership glory at all in long careers, so Ogg was pretty fortunate experiencing it in successive years with his two teams.

However, at league level for the Brisbane Bears it was a completely different story in his one year AFL career. Ogg played in 9 senior matches for the Bears, and all 9 resulted in losses. The 1991 Brisbane Bears side finished last with a 3-19-0 record so there weren't that many opportunities for a victory, however it must have been somewhat disappointing to have an AFL career that finished 0-9-0.
 
Ian O'Halloran (Geelong), Lloyd Brewer (Richmond), Ron Kennedy (Essendon), Ron Ellis (St. Kilda), Alby Williams (North Melbourne) and Willis Hardy (Carlton) are players hardly remembered today, nor would this be expected given they each just played 3 games and all many years ago.

However, these 6 former players are in an exclusive club - their 3 match careers each consisted of 1 win, 1 loss and 1 draw.
 
Alan Jennings made his debut for Footscray in their Round 1 1982 match against Essendon, with the Bombers handing the Bulldogs a 109-point thrashing. The opening round hiding was a sign of things to come for the Bulldogs, which finished last with a 3-19 win-loss record. However Jennings' debut was a major highlight for the struggling Dogs, as he netted 5 goals against Essendon, an amazing performance by a rookie in a team thrashed so badly. The next week he backed this up with another bag 5 goals against Collingwood, and Footscray looked like they had a young superstar in their squad.

Unfortunately for Jennings and the Bulldogs, his good form didn't last, and when he played in a 66-point demolition by Collingwood at Victoria Park in Round 12 that year, it was his 9th and final game of senior football, finishing his 1 season career with 15 goals to his name.
 
Collingwood's Terry Hecker made his debut in the Magpies' Round 22 1989 match against the West Coast Eagles, and he held his place in the senior team for the following week's Elimination Final against Melbourne.

Hecker then did not play again for all of 1990 & 1991, returned to the senior Magpie team for 4 senior games early in 1992, his last ever match being in a loss to Hawthorn in Round 6 of that year.
 

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Discussion Unusual short playing careers

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