Greg Williams (Australian footballer)

Greg Williams
Personal information
Full name Gregory Donald Williams
Nickname(s) Diesel
Date of birth (1963-09-30) 30 September 1963
Place of birth Victoria, Australia
Original team(s) Golden Square
Height/Weight 176 cm / 88 kg
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1984–1985
1986–1991
1992–1997
Total		 Geelong
Sydney
Carlton		 034 0(10)
107 (118)
109 0(89)
250 (217)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
Victoria 9 (8)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1997 season.
Career highlights

Club

Representative

Gregory Donald "Greg" Williams (born 30 September 1963) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented Geelong, the Sydney Swans and Carlton in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. A midfielder, he is a dual Brownlow Medal winner and at his peak was the highest-paid player in the history of the sport. He was also a very controversial player throughout his career, and was involved in a variety of scandals throughout the 1990s.

Playing style

Williams made his name as one of the best centres in the history of the game. He was particularly skilful at handpassing, and was the most prolific user of the skill during his era.[1] The hallmark of Williams' play was his ability to win ground contests, and almost immediately free the ball to nearby team-mates via quick, accurate handpassing.[2] To that end, Williams' other strengths included his vision and awareness of the team-mates around him; he is said to have been heavily involved in midfield tactics at ball-ups.[1] His kicking and ball winning skills were also strong.[2]

Williams strengths outweighed several negative physical characteristics which could have hindered his career as a footballer. Most notably, he was a very slow runner; he had been knock-kneed as a child and his pace was not helped by five knee surgeries throughout his career. He was also short and stocky and overweight early in his career.[1]

Williams earned the nickname "Diesel", because his playing style was characterised as "slow, but reliable", much like a diesel engine. The name was given to him after his first Victorian Football League (VFL) match by Geelong captain Michael Turner, and remains widely used.[2]

Playing career

Before the VFL

The third of eight children, Williams spent his early life in Melbourne, before moving to Bendigo at the age of 10. There, he played football for the Golden Square Football Club in the Bendigo Football League, earning strong acclaim at junior levels, representing Victoria in the Teal Cup in 1980.[2]

Prior to the 1982 VFL season, Williams trained in the pre-season with the Carlton Football Club (to which the Bendigo Football League was zoned), but the Blues ultimately rejected him, deterred by his lack of speed and fitness. He returned to Golden Square for the season, winning the Michelsen Medal as league best and fairest.[3] Carlton invited him to try out again in the 1983 pre-season, but again he was rejected. He returned to Golden Square, and once again he won the Michelsen Medal.[2]

Geelong

As Carlton had passed on Williams, other VFL clubs were able to recruit him, and prior to the 1984 VFL season he was recruited to Geelong, then under coach Tom Hafey. Williams made his debut in Round 1 and amassed 38 disposals, and scored three Brownlow votes. He played twelve matches in his first season, missing much of the year with a knee injury. In his second season, he played every match, won the VFL Players Association MVP Award and the Carji Greeves Medal.[2] He set new records for handpassing, with 399 handpasses for the season – a record which would stand until 2006 – and with 28 handpasses in the Round 22 match against Fitzroy – a record which would be tied several times, but not broken until 2008.[4]

Sydney Swans

At the end of 1985, when Hafey took the job as coach of the Sydney Swans after being sacked by Geelong, Williams was promptly offered a sizeable contract to follow Hafey to Sydney. Williams was reported to have been offered roughly double the money he was on at Geelong. Williams accepted, and the deal was done with a transfer fee of $120,000 between the clubs, which was much less than the $200,000 that Geelong had sought.[5]

Williams continued his strong form into his career with Sydney. In 1986, his first season there, Williams won the Brownlow Medal in a tie with Hawthorn's Robert DiPierdomenico, and made the All-Australian team for the first time; he would back this up with his second All-Australian selection in 1987, and he placed third for the Brownlow in 1989.[2] In Round 19, 1989, Williams amassed 53 disposals, which remains the highest ever recorded in a VFL/AFL match; it included another haul of 28 handpasses, and his career best tally of six goals.[4]

Transfer to Carlton

During 1991, Williams decided that he wanted to return to Melbourne the following season, and St Kilda and Carlton emerged as the two potential candidates. Since the introduction of the AFL Draft in 1986, Williams' move would need to take place as a trade, rather than with a transfer fee as had been the case under his first move. Ultimately, St Kilda was not willing to agree to Sydney's requested trade, which would have included future dual-Brownlow Medallist Robert Harvey, and as a result Williams was traded to Carlton. In the end, a three-way trade involving Fitzroy was negotiated, with Simon Minton-Connell traded from Carlton to Sydney, Darren Kappler traded from Fitzroy to Sydney, Peter Sartori and Ashley Matthews traded from Carlton to Fitzroy, and Williams traded from Sydney to Carlton.[2] Williams was estimated to be on a contract worth more than $300,000 per year, which was then the highest contract in the history of the sport.[1]

Carlton

After a solid 1992, Williams returned to career-best form for Carlton in 1993 and 1994. He finished second in the Brownlow Medal in 1993, one vote behind winner Gavin Wanganeen. In 1994, he polled 30 votes to win the award; he was the tenth player to win the Brownlow Medal twice, and the third to do so at different clubs. Additionally in 1994, he won the AFL Players Association MVP Award for the second time, becoming the first player to win the award twice; he won the Robert Reynolds Trophy as Carlton's best and fairest for the only time in his career. He was also All-Australian in both 1993 and 1994 – the former as vice-captain, and the latter as captain.[2] He won the first and only premiership of his VFL/AFL career with Carlton in 1995, and he won the Norm Smith Medal with five goals in the Grand Final. He was the first player to win a Brownlow Medal, Premiership Medallion, and Norm Smith Medal across his career.[6]

Williams played two more seasons, before retiring at the end of a controversial 1997 season which saw a protracted legal battle between the AFL and Carlton over a suspension Williams received from the tribunal. He finished his career with 259 senior games: 34 with Geelong, 107 with Sydney, 109 with Carlton and 9 for Victoria in State of Origin matches.[1] In his league career he accumulated 3600 handpasses, this was more than five hundred more than any other player before him, so prolific was his use of handpass, and it remained the record until 2006. As of the end of the 2014 season, his career average of 26.9 disposals per game and 14.4 handpasses per game remain the record for retired players.Note 2,[7]

Statistics

[8]

Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
Led the league for the season only
Led the league after finals only
Led the league after season and finals
Season Team # Games G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
Totals Averages (per game)
1984 Geelong 11 12 4 5 154 158 312 37 N/A 0.3 0.4 12.8 13.2 26.0 3.1 N/A
1985 Geelong 11 22 6 8 276 399 675 81 N/A 0.3 0.4 12.5 18.1 30.7 3.7 N/A
1986 Sydney 2 24 28 21 311 379 690 90 N/A 1.2 0.9 13.0 15.8 28.8 3.8 N/A
1987 Sydney 2 22 21 11 255 332 587 56 46 1.0 0.5 11.6 15.1 26.7 2.5 2.2
1988 Sydney 2 18 20 14 280 249 529 64 34 1.1 0.8 15.6 13.8 29.4 3.6 1.9
1989 Sydney 2 17 19 23 214 258 472 63 28 1.1 1.4 12.6 15.2 27.8 3.7 1.6
1990 Sydney 2 11 17 6 164 185 349 46 18 1.5 0.5 14.9 16.8 31.7 4.2 1.6
1991 Sydney 2 15 13 16 163 249 412 44 21 0.9 1.1 10.9 16.6 27.5 2.9 1.1
1992 Carlton 2 16 2 10 204 185 389 58 28 0.1 0.6 12.8 11.6 24.3 3.6 1.8
1993 Carlton 2 23 21 9 297 367 664 84 29 0.9 0.4 12.9 16.0 28.9 3.7 1.3
1994 Carlton 2 22 15 12 278 364 642 56 40 0.7 0.5 12.6 16.5 29.2 2.5 1.8
1995 Carlton 2 17 29 15 185 179 364 63 21 1.7 0.9 10.9 10.5 21.4 3.7 1.2
1996 Carlton 2 18 11 7 169 161 330 51 18 0.6 0.4 9.4 8.9 18.3 2.8 1.0
1997 Carlton 2 13 11 9 171 135 306 52 20 0.8 0.7 13.2 10.4 23.5 4.0 1.5
Career 250 217 166 3121 3600 6721 845 303 0.9 0.7 12.5 14.4 26.9 3.4 1.6

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
1984 7
1985 15
1986 17
1987 13
1988 2
1989 16
1990 7
1991 8
1992 6
1993 17
1994 30
1995 6
1996 7
1997 3
Total 154
Key:
Green / Bold = Won

Controversy

Williams was a highly controversial figure during his career, and was involved in several scandals.

Tribunal record

Williams frequently found himself in trouble with umpires and had many tribunal appearances – often as the result of overzealous retaliation against his taggers.[1] He was charged a total of 19 times, found guilty 12 times, and suspended for a total of 34 matches during his career.[9] He was also known for his generally impolite treatment of umpires, and the Tribunal found him guilty of verbally abusing an umpire on three occasions, for which he was twice fined and once suspended.[10]

Illegal player payments

In February 1992, it was uncovered that both Williams and the Sydney Swans had breached the league's salary regulations. Williams had received additional, undeclared payments via one of Sydney's sponsors during the 1990 season, with both the club and the player aware of the rort. Both plead guilty to the AFL. The club was fined $50,000, and Williams was fined $25,000 and de-registered by the league for eleven weeks. Williams was in his first pre-season with Carlton at the time, and his debut for the club was delayed until Round 7 as a result of the deregistration.[2][11]

1993 Brownlow Medal

When Williams finished one vote behind winner Gavin Wanganeen for the 1993 Brownlow Medal, it was noted that Williams had received no votes in Carlton's nine goal victory against Melbourne in Round 10 at Princes Park – a match in which Williams accumulated 44 disposals, kicked a goal and was generally thought to have been the most dominant player on the ground. The votes in that game attracted some media attention at the time, and Williams' poor relationship with umpires was often considered to have been a factor in his failure to poll votes.[12] In 2006, one of the umpires in that match, Murray Bird, alleged this to be true, stating that he had wanted to award votes to Williams, but that his more senior colleague on the day, John Russo, had overruled him on the basis of Williams' negative attitude towards him. Russo denied the allegations. Williams briefly considered a legal challenge for the 1993 Brownlow Medal, but did not proceed.[13]

Racial vilification

In August 1995, Williams was charged with racially vilifying West Coast Eagles opponent Chris Lewis, after referring to him as a "black cunt" during a match; he was one of the first players charged under an AFL rule, introduced in June 1995, which was specific to racial vilification. The case was settled with a public apology from Williams to Lewis; no penalty was imposed.[14] It was not the only incident between the two players in their careers, with Lewis suspended for spitting at Williams in a match in 1993.[10]

Suspension appealed through the courts

Williams was involved in a particularly controversial tribunal case following an incident in Round 1 1997. After the final siren of Carlton's match against Essendon, umpire Andrew Coates stepped in to break up a small conflict between Williams and Essendon's Sean Denham. Williams pushed Coates in the chest to continue the exchange with Denham. The contact was not violent in nature, but was forceful enough to knock Coates off balance.[15] Coates did not report Williams for the incident, but after viewing video footage, the AFL brought its own report against Williams to the tribunal. He was found guilty of "undue interference with an umpire" and suspended for nine matches.

Because the length of the suspension would have personally cost Williams $100,000 in match payments, Carlton decided to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court of Victoria; at the time, there was no Appeals Board at the AFL Tribunal, so the courts were the only place to appeal decisions.[16] An injunction against the suspension was awarded on the Friday after the match, allowing Williams to continue playing until the case was heard (although he did have to serve a three-week suspension for a kneeing offence committed the very next week). Prior to Round 10, the court overturned the nine-week suspension,[9] with Justice John Hedigan making direct recommendation that the AFL Tribunal establish its own appeals process as part of his judgement.[16] The AFL then appealed Hedigan's decision in the Victorian Court of Appeal, and the three justices found in the AFL's favour (by a majority of 2–1), and re-instated Williams' nine-week suspension, to be served starting in Round 17. Carlton attempted to take the case to the High Court of Australia, but the High Court rejected the application. Altogether, Carlton suffered more than $400,000 in legal costs.[9] Williams served six matches of the suspension before retiring at the end of the season. The AFL did act on Hedigan's recommendation, and established an Appeals Board for the 1998 season.

Personal life

Williams has a son, Jake, who trained with Carlton in the 2007 pre-season, but was ultimately not drafted to the AFL. Jake was eligible to be selected by either Carlton or Sydney under the father-son rule.[17]

Health

In February 2013 it was reported[18] that Williams was among a group of seven former AFL and NRL players who were tested by researchers at Deakin University and found to have symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative condition which has affected some athletes who have had a history of severe concussions and other head traumas. It was reported that Williams was suffering memory loss, including that he no longer recalls many specific details about some of his greatest football achievements, such as Carlton's 1995 premiership game.[19]

Notes

:1.^ Match statistics for kicks, handpasses and disposals are available only since 1974.
:2.^ Limited to players with fifty or more league games played.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2004), The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: Every Carlton AFL Player Ever, Melbourne, VIC: BAS Publishing, p. 206
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Greg Williams". Blueseum. 28 Jun 2010. Retrieved 30 Aug 2011.
  3. ↑ "Senior Football Records" (PDF). Bendigo Football Netball League. Retrieved 30 Aug 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Player Season and Game Records". AFL Tables. Retrieved 30 Aug 2011.
  5. ↑ Jones, Richard. "How Square boy Diesel became a Swan". Country Footy Scores. Retrieved 30 Aug 2011.
  6. ↑ Browne, Ashley (1 Oct 2011). "Medal man". Australian Football League. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  7. ↑ "Player Totals". AFL Tables. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  8. ↑ http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/G/Greg_Williams.html
  9. 1 2 3 "1997 Review". Footystats. 1997. Retrieved 30 Aug 2011.
  10. 1 2 "1995 Review". Footystats. 1995. Retrieved 31 Aug 2011.
  11. ↑ "1992 Review". Footystats. 1992. Retrieved 31 Aug 2011.
  12. ↑ "1993 Review". Footystats. 1993. Retrieved 30 Aug 2011.
  13. ↑ Albergo, Lisa (27 Sep 2006). "Potential Brownlow Scandal". AFANA. Retrieved 1 Sep 2011.
  14. ↑ Gardiner, Greg (November 1997), "Racial Abuse and Football: The Australian Football League’s Racial Vilification Rule in Review" (PDF), Sporting Traditions 14 (1)
  15. ↑ Murphy, Tim (5 May 1997). "Weekly Wrapup". Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  16. 1 2 "The Supreme Court Hearing". Retrieved 30 Aug 2011.
  17. ↑ "Carlton and Jake Williams". AFL Insider. 1 October 2006. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  18. ↑ "Knockout blow ", Sunday Night, 24 February 2013, Seven Network current affairs program. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  19. ↑ "AFL star blames concussion for memory loss". Herald Sun. 24 February 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.