BRENDAN FEVOLA

'Brendan 'Fev' Fevola' (born January 20, 1981) is an Australian rules footballer, currently playing with the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League.
He plays the position of full-forward and has apart from his sporadic footballing ability, is notable for his appearances on the Channel Nine's ''The Footy Show'' on Thursday nights during the season.

Contents

Football career

Early career

2004 season

2005 season

2006 season

2007 season

Fremantle Incident

Criticism

Career bests

Media persona/outside football

References

External links

See also

Football career

Early career

Fevola was recruited to Carlton with selection No. 38 overall in the 1998 AFL Draft. He made his AFL debut in Round 17, 1999 against Collingwood, receiving limited game time in his two matches late in the year.
After Carlton's first wooden spoon, Fevola was told by 2002 coach Wayne Brittain that he was to be delisted. That same night, Brittain was sacked and replaced with ex-Kangaroos coach Denis Pagan. Pagan reversed Brittain's decision, and kept Fevola on the list. Over the 2003 season, Denis succeeded in turning Fevola into a good leading forward. "Fev", as a number two forward, took many set shots through the year, but his accuracy was poor. This improved through the 2003 season.

2004 season

For the 2004 season, Fevola developed a ritualistic set-shot routine of thirteen steps, often taking over a minute to complete (thus attracting the ire of many media personnel). However, his accuracy and distance were enhanced, and at one point during the year, Fev's set shot record from outside fifty metres was 16.4, by far the best accuracy of any player from this range.
The most well-remembered moment of Fevola's career so far came in the dying moments of Carlton's round 11 match against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium. Carlton had recovered from a dreadful start, with only inaccurate kicking from Adelaide keeping them in the contest. With three minutes to go and Adelaide ahead by 2 points, Fevola barely held a mark just inside the boundary line, 55m out from goal on the northwest side of the ground. Despite the distance, angle, and limited run-up space, Fev kicked an amazing goal, which turned out to be the final score of the game.

2005 season

Now firmly entrenched as the #1 forward at Carlton, and the team's fastest sprinter over 20m, Fevola always attracted the fastest defenders who could often match him for speed and spoil his leading marks. This reduced his effectiveness in the Carlton forward-line. Also becoming a problem was a niggling groin injury he sustained in Round 12, preventing him from sprinting comfortably for the rest of the season. In this limited capacity, he still proved a useful decoy, freeing up the emerging talents Carlton had in its forward line. He had surgery over the 2005/06 off-season, and reports that the groin is fine.

2006 season

After giving up drinking and with a new outlook on his career, "Fev" dominated the Carlton forward line, kicking roughly 35% of their goals. He finished the season at the top of the goalkicking table with 84 goals, winning the Coleman Medal by a significant margin, with betting agencies eventually suspending Coleman Medal betting after round 20 when his lead was 18 goals. He is one of the few players to have won the Coleman medal from a team that had won the wooden spoon during the same year. He was selected as full-forward in the All-Australian football side at the end of the season, and was selected in the Australian International Rules team when St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt pulled out. During halftime at the 2006 AFL Grand Final between West Coast and Sydney, Fevola outran the 7 finalists for the ''Grand Final Sprint'' with an 8-metre handicap to be labelled the fastest man in the AFL.

2007 season

After a slow start to the season, Fevola clicked into gear and so far is near (or at) the top of the leaderboard for the Coleman Medal. This includes an eight-goal haul against Essendon, where his team was 48 points down going into halftime.

Fremantle Incident

After a match against Fremantle, he was stood down after giving away two 50-metre penalties and managing only one goal. Carlton had no choice but to tell him to leave the club and not come back until he sorted out his role within the club. Apparently the catalyst for his poor performance was set pre-match where the playing leadership group failed to hand interim club captaincy to him after the current captain Lance Whitnall was injured and could not take his spot on the team.

Criticism

Fevola has been often criticised for his on-field body language, including his outward displays of annoyances when the ball is not correctly delivered to him, and the fact that he takes much longer to get up from a bump or tackle than other players. Annually, there is media-fuelled speculation regarding whether or not the club would become fed up with this behaviour and trade Fevola, but every year so far he has been retained. However, in 2006 the coach Denis Pagan labelled him "a perfect role model" after the turnaround of his form.
While representing Australia in the 2006 International Rules series, Fevola was sent home following a pub brawl. It is alleged that Fevola, who was intoxicated, put the barman in a headlock and used threatening language when denied another drink. The Irish barman claims that Fevola also struck him on the face. This has led to suggestions that Fevola has not made such a big turnaround in behaviour and could easily slip back into his old ways and thus, his hopes of one day captaining the Carlton Football Club have been shattered. Fevola was sent home from the 2006 series after the allegations, although he has since been called to return to answer the allegations to the Garda Síochána. It is understood that he will not be charged but will receive what is titled an 'adult caution.'[1]

Career bests

During the special New Years' Eve Millennium Match against Collingwood Football Club on December 31, 1999, after only two senior games and no goals during the previous season, Fevola kicked twelve goals. He has never matched this tally in a regular season game. His best in the regular season is eight goals, kicked on four occasions, with 8.5 his best return (round 13, 2004 against Richmond), 8.3 against the Hawks in Round 19, 2006. and a memorable 8.2 in round 3, 2007 against Essendon in a thrilling comeback for the Blues. He has also kicked two bags of eight in pre-season games, in the 2005 Wizard Cup grand final against West Coast, earning him the Michael Tuck Medal, and in the semi-final of the 2007 NAB Cup against the Kangaroos.

Media persona/outside football

Fevola is a regular panellist on ''The Footy Show'' on the Nine Network, and is noted for his larrikin-like persona.) Memorable appearances on the show include his appearance late in 2005 where he shaved off his trademark dreadlocks (for which he has attracted the secondary nickname "''the Shag''") for charity and performed with teammates on the annual Player's Revue singing ''Achy Breaky Heart'' in 2005, and ''U Can't Touch This'' in 2006.
On the 7th October 2005 Fevola married Alex Cheatham at St John's Church in Toorak. However, on the 12th December 2006 it was announced that they were separated after only 14 months of marriage, amid allegations of Fevola's infidelity with an Australian model, rumoured to be Lara Bingle^[1]. Alex sold her side of the story to Woman's Day and claimed in the interview that Fevola had become "disconnected" from her following the birth of Leni. Bingle later confessed to the five week affair, that being a Sydney girl, she did not know that Fevola was married until she heard his baby in the background during a phone conversation.^[2]
Fevola has two daughters. An adopted daughter Mia, who is Alex's child from a previous relationship and a biological daughter with Alex, Leni Jay, born 21 July 2006,
In May 2006 Fevola began his career as a special comments commentator on Triple M.
Fevola has also been noted as studying criminology via correspondence at Griffith University and says that becoming a police officer is a possible career after football. He has also considered the option of pursuing a punting career in America with the NFL, following in the footsteps of Australians Ben Graham and Darren Bennett.

References

1. Bingle blamed for Fevola marriage break-up
2. Bingle 'clears the decks' on Fevola affair from brisbanetimes.com.au

External links

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★ Brendan Fevola Profile in Blueseum

See also

★ List of VFL/AFL players by ethnicity

★ List of Australian rules football incidents