Discussion Unusual short playing careers

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Adelaide Football Club - Players less than 10 games

Darren Smith 9
Paul Patterson 9
Ricky O'Loughlin 9
Lewis Johnston 8
Bryce Campbell 8
Tim Cook 8
Sudjai Cook 7
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Bruce Lindsay 6
Brenton Sanderson 6 (played for Geelong but only player to play and coach for Adelaide) *Bickley stand in
Romano Negri 6
Aaron Keating 6 (premiership 3rd game)
Robert Thompson 5
Justin Cicolella 5
Brodie Atkinson 5 (played 2 games for St Kilda)
Fergus Watts 5 (played 1 game for St Kilda)
Joshua Mail 4
Shane Tongerie 4
Stuart Bown 4
Adam Saliba 3
Darryl Wintle 3
Jarrhan Jacky 3
Peter Turner 3
Tom Gilligan 3
Matthew Kelly 2
Tom Warhurst 2
Will Young 2
Adam Richardson 2
John Meesen 2
Linden Stevens 2
Dean Howard 2
Ashley Fernee 2
Clayton Lamb 1
John Hinge 1
Tim McIntyre 1
 

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Anyone who supported Essendon in the 90s will remember the name Julian Kirzner.

Kicked bags in the reserves as an 18, 19 year old but never quite managed to crack the senior team. You'd see the twos every week and he'd be kicking bags and everybody wanted to know why Sheedy wouldn't play him. He ended up playing one senior game for Essendon before getting delisted.

He had stints at Carlton and North as well. 5 seasons, 4 senior games, 6 goals, and a mountain of goals in the reserves. Went to North Ballarat when they joined the VFL and did well there I think.
 
Blackhawk42 said:
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.
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8 seasons on a senior list.???
For just 1 game.
206cm and the Hawks tried to develop him into a forward.
Watched him play VFL one day where he absolutely stared
(Along side Xavier Ellis..which about says it all)
Was surprised that the Hawks never really gave him a run.
 
Emily McGuire made her debut for the Fremantle Dockers in Round 3 of the 2018 AFLW season against Melbourne, kicking 2 goals and receiving a Rising Star nomination. She played two more games, failed to kick another goal and was delisted at the end of the season.
 
Michael Cooke was a Hawthorn player who kicked four goals on debut in the 1975 Second semi final as Hawthorn won straight through to the Grand Final.
He failed to score in the GF loss, and never played senior VFL footy again.
 
Bunk Moreland said:
Anyone who supported Essendon in the 90s will remember the name Julian Kirzner.

Kicked bags in the reserves as an 18, 19 year old but never quite managed to crack the senior team. You'd see the twos every week and he'd be kicking bags and everybody wanted to know why Sheedy wouldn't play him. He ended up playing one senior game for Essendon before getting delisted.

He had stints at Carlton and North as well. 5 seasons, 4 senior games, 6 goals, and a mountain of goals in the reserves. Went to North Ballarat when they joined the VFL and did well there I think.
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IIRC Kirzner was one of those kids that put a high price on himself before getting drafted, that caused the playing list to think he was bit of a tosser. Big money but little output caused resentment so he had to go.
Currently playing in the Essendon DFL were he copes abuse from bomber fans with long memories. Said to put the spotlight on the doping scandal by making public the whispers he been hearing from Essendon insiders.
 
John Hutton from the 1990s comes to mind.

He was the No 1 draft pick in 1991 having been a century goal-kicker for Claremont's premiership team in the WAFL that season, had three seasons at AFL level all for different clubs - Brisbane in 1992, Sydney in 1993 and Fremantle in 1995, playing at QAFL team Palm Beach-Currumbin in 1994. He had limited opportunities at the Swans, but played some good football for the Bears and Dockers, so his delisting from the Bears after a promising first season in a struggling team (Hutton kicked 8 goals against Geelong in a match the Cats won by 164 points) especially was quite a shock.

Hutton's last ever game was in Round 17 1995 against Essendon at the MCG, and it proved to be an interesting final match. He was not in the original line-up, but travelled to Melbourne with Fremantle as an emergency. When a Dockers player got injured in the pre-game warm up, Hutton was called up to play, to some dismay from Essendon who queried whether this was legal.
 
Not so much in the short category but Jesse White has an unusual career in the black and white of Collingwood.

The only Collingwood player ever to have the surname of Black or White.
 
And perhaps the most unusual of all short playing careers?

Jim Bradford played only 7 games for Collingwood and just 9 games for North Melbourne.

But what is especially unusual about his short career was, he has the distinction of being the shortest ever AFL/VFL player of all time, at a mere 152cm, not quite, even 5 foot tall.

His nickname not surprisingly was, Nipper.
 
emuboy said:
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.
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The Thanos career.
 

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Max Wilson, who played 9 games for Carlton in 1943 & 1944 was born in July 1914 and died in 2017, was the only player to have been alive when all 21 AFL/VFL clubs were in existence. Another Wilson, a Don Wilson who played 7 games for Footscray in the late 1930s lived from 1914-2015 but was born in October, and unlike Max was not alive when University was playing.

Harry Selover who played 3 games for Melbourne in 1919, is the only player who lived in 3 centuries. He was born on 24/07/1898, and died 18/05/2001.
 
emuboy said:
Max Wilson, who played 9 games for Carlton in 1943 & 1944 was born in July 1914 and died in 2017, was the only player to have been alive when all 21 AFL/VFL clubs were in existence. Another Wilson, a Don Wilson who played 7 games for Footscray in the late 1930s lived from 1914-2015 but was born in October, and unlike Max was not alive when University was playing.

Harry Selover who played 3 games for Melbourne in 1919, is the only player who lived in 3 centuries. He was born on 24/07/1898, and died 18/05/2001.
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What a brilliant post.

I find such things fascinating.

Eg: apparently Gough Whitlam is only prime minister of Australia to be alive during at least part of the life of every prime minister thus far. (This will apply for about another forty years or so give or take.)
 
147 players have debuted in a draw.

13 have only played one game, which ended in a draw:
Ted Flynn (1903, Essendon)
Sid O'Neill (1909, Fitzroy)
Ron Larking (1909, University)
Tom Hanson (1911, Carlton)
Colin Dufty (1914, Collingwood)
Arthur Harrison (1914, Carlton)
Eric Crompton (1935, Footscray)
George Kanngieser (1935, Collingwood)
Ted Wellington (1943, North Melbourne)
Ray Davies (1954, Fitzroy)
Garry Cameron (1967, North Melbourne)
Byron Sumner (2011, Sydney)
Daniel Archer (2011, St Kilda)

5 have debuted in a draw, and their next game was also a draw:
Ned Bowen (1911-13, Carlton & St Kilda)
Bruce Campbell (1911-13, Carlton, Fitzroy & Melbourne)
Jim Willis (1914, 1918, Carlton)
Harry Bruce (1921, Melbourne)
Les Stillman (1968-71, Essendon & Footscray)

2 have debuted in a draw, and ended their career with a draw:
Dan Keily (1914-21, Carlton)
Jeff McGee (1967-68, South Melbourne)
 
killer said:
any info on this guy?
doug mcdougall collingwood (1 game ) then to Sturt / south adel 2 years later
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Pretty obscure in the Collingwood records! I see they don't even have a photo of him on Collingwood Forever - where he's known as Darcy McDougall. He can be seen in this Sturt team photo (D. V. McDougall) from 1915: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164201549
1553920456536.png
Sturt were premiers that year (for the first time) - it was his last season with the club (and in senior football according to this). He's also in this 1910 Sturt team photo.
He was captain of South Adelaide in 1909: https://www.safc.com.au/honour-board.html

He was in the SA squad in 1914 for the Carnival held in Sydney: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131872150

He's referred to as Darcy by his family in his death notice: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206204022
I'm not sure where the "Doug" comes from.

Edit: I've just sent a link to the photo to Collingwood Forever, so hopefully they will find it useful.

I haven't been able to find a permit for the player going from Collingwood to SA, or an article that mentions from where he joined South Adelaide, so I'm just assuming Wikipedia and AustralianFootball.com have this right! One June 1907 article says "another solid defender turned up in McDougall, who has fulfilled all expectations" which could suggest that he was a well regarded recruit.
 
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killer said:
any info on this guy?
doug mcdougall collingwood (1 game ) then to Sturt / south adel 2 years later
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This name being thrown up has worked out very well!! I received a very nice email from Michael Roberts [Collingwood History & Archives Manager] earlier today. Whereas they didn't have a photo of the player previously, they now have several to pick from (and have one up on his Collingwood Forever page). Michael said "He looks very similar to Bertie McDougall, who played for us in 1910, so I wonder if they're brothers? We'll do some more digging."

I've checked Vic BDM and there was no sign of a birth reg. for Darcy, but Bertie (Bertram) was there in 1890, with Matilda (nee Curtis) and Malcolm as parents. Wikipedia says the two McDougall's who played for Collingwood were born at Clifton Hill and died in NSW, making it seem reasonably likely. A check of their death registrations on NSW BDM basically confirms the two are brothers:
1554026586455.png
1554026607943.png
That represents a really good result, I would say!! Incidentally, The Encyclopedia leaves Bertie McDougall (he only played the one game as well) out completely.
 
killer said:
I'm still not 100% doug and darcy are the same person

the sturt history book (True Blue p 56) has doug joining
up for the war in early 1916
I can't locate a war service record for dv (darcy) mcdougall
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They call him Doug in the photo you just posted (Collingwood Forever have actually chosen to go with this picture, so they must have found this one themselves, after I sent the other ones):
1554032363269.png
In the 1915 Sturt photo they have him as D. V. McDougall (Darcy Vincent):
1554032456927.png
Has to be the same chap!!
I looked last night and didn't find anything for Darcy in the war records either. I also looked under Doug/Douglas and found nothing.
 
killer said:
any info on this guy?
doug mcdougall collingwood (1 game ) then to Sturt / south adel 2 years later
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Here's a P.S. to the Darcy (Doug) McDougall story, and I find this rather extraordinary! Having played just the one game for Collingwood (in 1904) as an 18-year-old, then having a very successful career in SA, he chose to return 'home' to Collingwood in 1919. He was 33 by this time! The SAFL wasn't operating from 1916-18 so it's quite possible he didn't play football in that time.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/243484507 (25 April 1919)
1555730885936.png

It seems the club was keen to take him back. This is from the 1919 Rd. 1 Football Record:
1555729166201.png
He certainly didn't play senior football for Collingwood again, and I can't see any sign of him playing anywhere (or getting a permit), so I wonder what happened.
 

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Discussion Unusual short playing careers

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