Gavin Wanganeen

Gavin Wanganeen

Gavin Wanganeen reunited with coach John Cahill at Port Adelaide for its first AFL season in 1997.
Personal information
Full name Gavin Adrian Wanganeen
Nickname(s) Wanga
Date of birth (1973-06-18) 18 June 1973
Place of birth Mount Gambier, South Australia
Original team(s) Salisbury North
Draft No. 12, 1989 National Draft, Essendon
Height / weight 181cm / 83kg
Position(s) Utility
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1990
1991 1996
1997 2006
Total (AFL)
Port Adelaide (SANFL)
Essendon
Port Adelaide
0240(46)
01270(64)
01730(138)
03000(202)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1992–1998 South Australia 8 (?)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2005.
Career highlights

Club

Representative

Gavin Adrian Wanganeen (born 18 June 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Essendon in the Australian Football League (AFL) and Port Adelaide in both the AFL and the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Wanganeen won the 1993 Brownlow Medal. Wanganeen is a descendant of the Kokatha Mula people. He is the first cousin of brothers Aaron and Alwyn Davey.[1]

Early life

Wanganeen was born in Mount Gambier to a footballing family; his great-grandfather had played for the local team at the Koonibba mission near Ceduna.[2] He is an Indigenous Australian of Kokatha Mula descent.[3]

His family moved from Mount Gambier to Port Lincoln for a few years. By the time Wanganeen was 5 they moved again to Salisbury, a norther suburb in Adelaide.[4]

Wanganeen played junior football for Adelaide based South Australian Amateur Football League club Salisbury North and attended Salisbury East High School.[4]

At the age of 14, Wanganeen joined the Port Adelaide Under 17s side in the SANFL.[4]

Football Career

Port Adelaide: 1990

Wanganeen made his senior SANFL debut with Port Adelaide in 1990 at only 16 years of age. The 1990 SANFL season was the last year that the competition was the highest level of football in South Australia. He played 24 matches and kicked 46 goals, winning the SANFL Rookie of the Year award, starring in Port Adelaide's 1990 SANFL Grand Final win kicking two goals.[5]

Essendon: 1991–1996

Drafted to Essendon, Wanganeen debuted for the club in 1991, Round 2 in a win against Richmond. He immediately finding a niche as an attacking defender. His quality was recognised in 1993 when he won the Brownlow Medal for the best and fairest player in the league, the first Aboriginal Australian to do so, as well as being a key player in South Australia's State of Origin Carnival Championship, and Essendon's Premiership win that year. In 2002, Wanganeen was voted the 19th best Essendon player of all time in the "Champions of Essendon" list.

Port Adelaide return: 1997–2006

Wanganeen returned to Port Adelaide in 1997 as the club's 59th captain and its inaugural captain in the AFL. He received 11 Brownlow votes for the year, but after his first season injuries conspired to minimise his impact. He relinquished the Port Adelaide captaincy at the end of the 2000 AFL season which saw a return to his best form. In 2003 Wanganeen was favourite to once again win the Brownlow (he finished equal second). In 2004 Wanganeen won his second premiership medal in Port's first AFL premiership side. Wanganeen played his 300th AFL game in the 2006 season, but then injured his right knee in a SANFL game for the Port Adelaide Magpies, which led him to retire from football.[6] Wanganeen was the first Aboriginal player to play 300 AFL games. He was honoured by the Power by the naming of the best under 21 medal after him, the Gavin Wanganeen Medal.

Statistics

[7]
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)
1991 Essendon 4 18 12 13 155 89 244 39 38 0.7 0.7 8.6 4.9 13.6 2.2 2.1
1992 Essendon 4 21 11 17 238 121 359 55 73 0.5 0.8 11.3 5.8 17.1 2.6 3.5
1993 Essendon 4 22 5 3 267 146 413 69 30 0.2 0.1 12.1 6.6 18.8 3.1 1.4
1994 Essendon 4 22 12 9 286 101 387 82 42 0.5 0.4 13.0 4.6 17.6 3.7 1.9
1995 Essendon 4 23 10 10 267 124 391 60 27 0.4 0.4 11.6 5.4 17.0 2.6 1.2
1996 Essendon 4 21 14 8 242 111 353 64 43 0.7 0.4 11.5 5.3 16.8 3.0 2.0
1997 Port Adelaide 1 20 14 6 219 129 348 49 28 0.7 0.3 11.0 6.5 17.4 2.5 1.4
1998 Port Adelaide 1 15 8 9 176 60 236 52 28 0.5 0.6 11.7 4.0 15.7 3.5 1.9
1999 Port Adelaide 1 16 5 4 193 92 285 59 15 0.3 0.3 12.1 5.8 17.8 3.7 0.9
2000 Port Adelaide 1 10 6 5 120 55 175 36 9 0.6 0.5 12.0 5.5 17.5 3.6 0.9
2001 Port Adelaide 4 24 41 22 256 109 365 75 26 1.7 0.9 10.7 4.5 15.2 3.1 1.1
2002 Port Adelaide 4 20 12 7 201 83 284 64 21 0.6 0.4 10.1 4.2 14.2 3.2 1.1
2003 Port Adelaide 4 25 15 18 433 91 524 161 33 0.6 0.7 17.3 3.6 21.0 6.4 1.3
2004 Port Adelaide 4 19 24 10 193 103 296 86 17 1.3 0.5 10.2 5.4 15.6 4.5 0.9
2005 Port Adelaide 4 23 13 8 227 135 362 75 29 0.6 0.3 9.9 5.9 15.7 3.3 1.3
2006 Port Adelaide 4 1 0 0 0 9 9 1 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.0 9.0 1.0 1.0
Career 300 202 149 3473 1558 5031 1027 460 0.7 0.5 11.6 5.2 16.8 3.4 1.5

Honours and Achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
1991 7
1992 11
1993 18
1994 6
1995 7
1996 4
1997 11
1998 3
1999 11
2000
2001 4
2002 2
2003 21
2004 2
2005 2
2006
Total 109
Key:
Green / Bold = Won

Essendon

Team

Individual

Port Adelaide

Team

Individual

Other Individual Awards

SANFL

Team

Individual

Personal life

Wanganeen has two children; a daughter, Mia and a son, Tex, from a previous relationship.[8][9]

In July 2012, Wanganeen married Pippa Hanson, a former Miss World entrant, model and TV presenter. The couple have two daughters, Kitty Emerald and Lulu Allegra and are expecting their third child. [10]

Since retiring from football, Wanganeen has focused on business interests involving ownership of three Anytime Fitness centres at Modbury, Port Adelaide and Essendon.[11]

Wanganeen has served as a voluntary ambassador for the Australian branch of the White Ribbon Campaign which is a men's campaign that tackles violence against women. He also lent his name to the Gavin Wanganeen Indigenous Scholarship (GWIS) at the University of South Australia, which was established in 2005 to support disadvantaged Indigenous students to complete a university degree.[11]

He is a third cousin of Rabbit Proof Fence actress Natasha Wanganeen.

In 2013, Wanganeen was appointed senior coach of Pulteney Grammar School's football team.[12]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.