Almanac Footy – Famous VAFA Club XVIII/Clubbies footballers
VAFA Club XVIII aka ‘Clubbies’ (3rd tier of the VAFA) was originally a social competition for guys who wanted to play without training. Below is a list of Famous VAFA Club XVIII/Clubbies footballers.
Brad Robinson (Australian Crawl guitarist) Hawthorn Under 19s in 1976. Also played for South Melbourne Bloods in the VAFA Club XVIII in the late ’70s/early ’80s.
James Reyne (Australian Crawl lead singer) Played for South Melbourne Bloods in the VAFA Club XVIII in the late ’70s.
Peter O’Brien (Actor) played in the VAFA in the ’80s and ’90s for Old Melburnians. He won the Woodrow Medal (B&F in the VAFA’s top tier) in 1996.
Adrian Anderson (Former GM of AFL Football Operations and lawyer) played for Old Melburnians in the VAFA in the 2000s and captained their Under 18s team.
Gil McLachlan (AFL chief) once trailed with Carlton and was on their supplementary list in 1996-97. Gillon had a distinguished career with Melbourne University Blues in the VAFA Club XVIII Clubbies and was the Big V Captain of the VAFA 2001 representative side that played matches against the Victorian Country Football League and the South Australian Amateur Football League. In total Gillon played five times for the senior Big V and was a decorated player at University Blues from 1994- 2003 where he won a club Best and Fairest in 2000 and was club captain from 2000-2002. In 2003 he was awarded Life Membership of the Melbourne University Football Club.
Blair McDonough (Actor) played VAFA Club XVIII in 2009 and 2010 for Eltham Old Collegians.
Russell Gilbert (Comedian) played VAFA Club XVIII for Fitzroy in the 1980s.
Jon Anderson (Football Journalist) played 78 games for Old Geelong Football Club South Yarra in VAFA from 1974 to 1983.
Craig ‘Hutchy’ Hutchinson (Football Commentator/Media Owner) and Mark ‘Howie’ Howard (Sports Commentator) played VAFA Club XVIII Clubbies for Prahran in the mid-2000s. Hutchy kicked 6 one day at Kew.
Simon Leathlan (former AFL football operations manager and current GM of St Kilda) Lethlean played for the Hawthorn reserves side, playing in 40 games during the 1990s before later playing VAFA Club XVIII for Old Xaverians, where he was involved in five premierships.
Andrew Dillon (former AFL executive Andrew Dillon) is another Xavier old boy and six-time VAFA Club XVIII Old Xaverians premiership player.
Can anyone think of other famous Clubbies players?
To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au home page click HERE
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE
One-off financial contribution – CLICK HERE
Regular financial contribution (monthly EFT) – CLICK HERE
Gary Sweet played for Port Colts in 1989 (with Buster Harland). I think Sweet played for OMs before that. Peter Cupples played for OMs.
Those were Club XVIII.
Thanks. I have this in the SA section.
Gary Sweet (Actor). Played for the Glenelg reserves in SANFL in 1977-79 before moving to Melbourne in 1980. He kicked a goal at Adelaide Football Park as a dashing wingman with Glenelg in the 1979 reserves Grand Final. Glenelg lost to South Adelaide in the GF. He also played in the under-19 SA state team. He moved to Melbourne in 1980 and between 1980-89 he played for Port Melbourne Colts reserve team in the old VAFA and in the VAFA for a long-defunct club called GTV9 in the Club XVIII comp. Gary won 1987 Steve Mason Medal as the Best and Fairest in the G Section of the VAFA. While in Sydney, he tried his hand at rugby league.
Who and when did Peter Cupples play for?
Kev
Gary Sweet did play one year for OM’s post 1983 (not sure which one).
Don’t recall a Peter O’Brien playing for OM’s in 1980’s and 1990’s. There was a Paul O’Brien (ex MFC) who played and coached in the early 1990’s.
The Peter O’Brien who won the A Grade Medal in 1996 only played with OM’s for that 1 year. He was definitely not the actor. I was President in that year.
Hi Ian.
Thanks for this info.
I was going off the info from this VAFA record and Norm Nugent’s information.
https://issuu.com/vafa_hq/docs/vafa_record_rnd6_web/61