Brett Kirk

Brett Kirk
Personal information
Date of birth (1976-10-25) 25 October 1976
Original team(s) North Albury (NSW)
Debut Round 19, 1999, Sydney Swans
vs. Kangaroos, at SCG
Height / weight 184cm, 81 kg[1]
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1999–2010 Sydney Swans 241 (96)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2010.
Career highlights
Brett Kirk in action for the Sydney Swans

Brett Kirk (born 25 October 1976) is a former Australian rules football player of the Sydney Swans, and was the AFL's International Ambassador.[2] Kirk is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Sydney Swans Football Club.[3]

AFL career

Kirk grew up in Albury, New South Wales. He was recruited to the Sydney Swans as a mature-aged rookie and was twice dropped from the team, but he found his way back on to the list. Kirk was regarded as "one of the toughest and most respected midfielders in the competition".[1][2]

Kirk played 241 games for the Swans since making his debut in 1999, including the last 200 without missing a match. He was nominated All-Australian in 2004.[1] Kirk won the best and fairest twice, in 2005, the year the club won the AFL premiership, and again in 2007. He was co-captain of the Swans from 2005-2010.[2]

He surpassed Jared Crouch's Swans record of 194 consecutive AFL matches in the game against Geelong in round 18, 2010. He had a total of 1278 tackles in his career, which is the fourth most of any AFL player (2014).[4] Kirk played his final and 200th consecutive game (having not missed a match since Round 14, 2002) when he faced the Western Bulldogs in the second round of the AFL finals on Saturday 11 September 2010. It is the fifth longest such streak, and is one of two by Sydney Swans players (the other being Adam Goodes) in the top 5.[5]

He retired at the end of 2010.<ref name="theaustralian"/

Role with Channel Seven

After retirement, Kirk was invited to join Channel 7's coverage of AFL as field commentator. Kirk's commentary was at times, awkward, highlighted by a 'weird' introduction prior to coverage of a game. In the video, Kirk describes the Channel 7 commentary team. The video can be seen here: .

Coaching and ambassador role

In 2011, he spent six months travelling the world and spreading the word about football as the AFL's International Ambassador.

Kirk joined the Fremantle Football Club as an assistant coach at the end of the 2012 season.[6] Prior to that, he worked at the Gold Coast Football Club in a role designed to help implement a winning culture at the club.[7]

Statistics

[8]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
Season Team # Games G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
Totals Averages (per game)
1999 Sydney 31 5 5 2 65 19 84 18 11 1.0 0.4 13.0 3.8 16.8 3.6 2.2
2000 Sydney 31 7 1 3 45 33 78 13 18 0.1 0.4 6.4 4.7 11.1 1.9 2.6
2001 Sydney 31 19 14 8 130 101 231 56 39 0.7 0.4 6.8 5.3 12.2 2.9 2.1
2002 Sydney 31 18 6 2 96 137 233 39 78 0.3 0.1 5.3 7.6 12.9 2.2 4.3
2003 Sydney 31 24 9 5 168 209 377 44 140 0.4 0.2 7.0 8.7 15.7 1.8 5.8
2004 Sydney 31 24 10 11 236 237 473 54 127 0.4 0.5 9.8 9.9 19.7 2.3 5.3
2005 Sydney 31 26 6 6 299 271 570 68 136 0.2 0.2 11.5 10.4 21.9 2.6 5.2
2006 Sydney 31 25 8 13 285 211 496 99 142 0.3 0.5 11.4 8.4 19.8 4.0 5.7
2007 Sydney 31 23 8 5 223 293 516 80 149 0.3 0.2 9.7 12.7 22.4 3.5 6.5
2008 Sydney 31 24 9 12 257 282 539 71 151 0.4 0.5 10.7 11.8 22.5 3.0 6.3
2009 Sydney 31 22 8 4 173 295 468 44 170 0.4 0.2 7.9 13.4 21.3 2.0 7.7
2010 Sydney 31 24 12 4 161 236 397 68 117 0.5 0.2 6.7 9.8 16.5 2.8 4.9
Career 241 96 75 2138 2324 4462 654 1278 0.4 0.3 8.9 9.6 18.5 2.7 5.3

Personal life

In 2008, Kirk was given the honour of meeting with the Dalai Lama during his Australian tour in which he presented the Dalai Lama with a signed Swans jersey.[9] Kirk is known as a practicing Buddhist and has a tattoo of a Buddhist symbol on his back.[10] When the young Swan Dan Hannebery seemed anxious, Kirk recommended that he do some meditation and read The Power of Now and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hinds, Richard, The Swans, player by player, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 2005
  2. 1 2 3 Kogoy, Peter, Brett Kirk joins Fremantle Dockers as assistant coach, The Australian, 29 August 2012
  3. ↑ "Coaching Staff". fremantlefc.com.au. Fremantle Football Club. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  4. ↑ "Player Totals". AFL Tables. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  5. ↑ AFL Tables - Miscellaneous Player Records
  6. ↑ Fremantle Football Club - Coaching Staff
  7. ↑ Bluestone Edge and Kirk join GC SUNS, goldcoastfc.com.au, 6 December 2011
  8. ↑ Brett Kirk's player profile at AFL Tables
  9. ↑ 30,000 get wet to hear Dalai Lama, Brisbane Times, 2007
  10. ↑ Captain Kirk leads next generation
  11. ↑ Samantha Lane, Hannebery Has New Focus

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.