Billy Brownless

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Billy Brownless
Personal information
Full name Anthony William Brownless
Date of birth (1967-01-28) 28 January 1967 (age 57)
Place of birth Jerilderie, New South Wales
Height/Weight 192 cm / 102 kg
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1986–1997 Geelong 198 (441)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1988-1993 New South Wales 5 (?)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1997 season.
Career highlights

Anthony William "Billy" Brownless (born 28 January 1967 in Jerilderie, New South Wales) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented Geelong in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1980s and 1990s.

Football career

Born and raised in rural New South Wales, Brownless first played football for his local team Jerilderie when it was part of the Murray Football League. He boarded for three years at Assumption College, one of Australia's most renowned "football nurseries", that is, a school which has a strong tradition of producing footballers who have gone on to play in the AFL. In 1984, his final year at Assumption, Brownless kicked 155 goals.[1] Geelong asked Brownless to come and train, but instead Brownless chose to return home to Jerilderie to catch up with family and friends and play a season of senior football before going to Geelong.[1] During the 1985 season, he kicked 148 goals for the Jerilderie senior team while working as a farmhand. Jerilderie made it to the Grand Final but lost. Brownless kicked six of the team's nine goals despite having injured an ankle in the semi-final.[1]

Brownless moved to Geelong in time for the 1986 VFL season and began working as a groundsman at Kardinia Park. He said that playing for Geelong was a natural progression for him because of the town's rural atmosphere:

It's really like a big country town and the club's a lot like a country club. You're all behind one another and you're all pretty close. It's a good feeling.[1]

Brownless made his senior VFL debut in Round 1, 1986 and quickly made a name for himself as a strong full-forward, winning the Cats' Best First Year Player award that year. He went on to play 198 games and kick 441 goals, putting him 4th in Geelong's all-time goalkicking list, behind Gary Ablett (1021), Doug Wade (834) and Steve Johnson (443).

One of Brownless' fondest memories was booting a goal after the siren against Footscray in the 1994 qualifying final. With Geelong trailing by one point, he marked the ball within scoring range with just seconds left and booted a goal to send Geelong through to the next stage of the finals. While the Cats eventually made it to the Grand Final, they lost that match and it was a sad tale of Brownless' career that he played in four losing Grand Final teams with Geelong.

Brownless retired in 1997 at 30 years of age.

Billy Brownless has the record for most goals in a game at the Gabba, with 11.

Statistics

[2]
Legend
 D  Disposals  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  M  Marks  T  Tackles  H/O  Hit-outs  G  Goals  B  Behinds
Season Team # Games D K H M T H/O G B D K H M T H/O G B
Totals Averages (per game)
1986 Geelong 16 14 162 112 50 80 – 39 32 16 11.6 8.0 3.6 5.7 – 2.8 2.3 1.1
1987 Geelong 16 14 160 112 48 75 20 14 30 22 11.4 8.0 3.4 5.4 1.4 1.0 2.1 1.6
1988 Geelong 16 7 65 44 21 28 6 3 14 7 9.3 6.3 3.0 4.0 0.9 0.4 2.0 1.0
1989 Geelong 16 26 348 228 120 143 19 10 46 34 13.4 8.8 4.6 5.5 0.7 0.4 1.8 1.3
1990 Geelong 16 22 384 241 143 122 21 21 35 22 17.5 11.0 6.5 5.5 1.0 1.0 1.6 1.0
1991 Geelong 16 20 295 223 72 142 13 2 81 54 14.8 11.2 3.6 7.1 0.7 0.1 4.1 2.7
1992 Geelong 16 24 313 213 100 141 16 24 79 46 13.0 8.9 4.2 5.9 0.7 1.0 3.3 1.9
1993 Geelong 16 11 143 100 43 51 7 8 20 14 13.0 9.1 3.9 4.6 0.6 0.7 1.8 1.3
1994 Geelong 16 17 198 153 45 84 11 14 34 21 11.6 9.0 2.6 4.9 0.6 0.8 2.0 1.2
1995 Geelong 16 24 322 208 114 126 32 42 45 36 13.4 8.7 4.8 5.3 1.3 1.8 1.9 1.5
1996 Geelong 16 11 135 88 47 51 14 12 20 11 12.3 8.0 4.3 4.6 1.3 1.1 1.8 1.0
1997 Geelong 16 8 54 35 19 15 2 4 5 8 6.8 4.4 2.4 1.9 0.3 0.5 0.6 1.0
Career 198 2579 1757 822 1058 161 193 441 291 13.0 8.9 4.2 5.3 0.9 1.0 2.2 1.5

Media career and Life After Football

Once Brownless retired from football he moved into the media, appearing regularly on The Footy Show. On The Footy Show he appeared in "The House of Bulger" segment as the family's matriarch Joybell Bulger.

He joined 95.5 K-Rock in Geelong as a Sales Representative. Soon, on their "Big Mattress" breakfast show, he co-hosted a sport/comedy segment called "On The Bench" with ex-Geelong player Dwayne Russell and the Essendon fanatic "Ferret" (Russell Taylor), twice a week. A long list of Geelong players were included in "On The Bench" as special guests including Barry Stoneham, Tim McGrath and Paul Couch.

In 1992 he became the inaugural winner of the Mirrool Silo Kick in the Riverina, kicking an Aussie Rules football 32 metres plus over the Mirrool Silos.[3]

In August 1999, it was reported that due to Brownless' connections in the local political scene, both the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the ruling Liberal Party of Australia were keen to recruit Brownless into politics, despite his limited experience. Labor leader Steve Bracks, who would go on to win the state election that year, was a Geelong supporter, and Brownless had persuaded the then Premier Jeff Kennett's wife, Felicity, to become Geelong's female number one ticket holder.[4]

As of 2005, Brownless has featured on The Sunday Footy Show, as well as continuing his appearances on The Footy Show. He also co-hosted Morning Glory, a weekday breakfast show on Melbourne radio station SEN 1116. Brownless finished his 5-day a week stint in November 2008. Brownless appeared on Before the Bounce, a weekly football show on Foxtel alongside Jason Dunstall and Danny Frawley until the end of the 2008 AFL season.

In May 2008, Bill Brownless was added as a regular on the Thursday night AFL Footy Show to replace an incapacitated Sam Newman, but was relegated to guest panelist upon Newman's return. Since 2009 Brownless has once again became a regular alongside Shane Crawford to replace Trevor Marmalade, Alternating each week with Crawford & since 2012, Matthew Lloyd.

In March 2010 Brownless joined Triple M Melbourne's new Drive show The Rush Hour with James Brayshaw.[5]

Personal life

Brownless bought the Cumberland Hotel in Castlemaine, Victoria.[6] He is married to Nicky (They are currently separated) . They have two daughters, Lucy and Ruby, and two sons, Oscar Luke and Max.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Billy Brownless' player profile at AFL Tables
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Bibliography

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External links

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