Mike Fitzpatrick (footballer)

Mike Fitzpatrick
Personal information
Full name	Michael Fitzpatrick
Date of birth	28 January 1953
Original team(s)	Subiaco
Height/Weight	192 cm / 98 kg
Position(s)	Ruck
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1975–1983	Carlton	150 (150)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
??–??	Western Australia	11 (7)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1983 season. ^2 State and international statistics correct as of ??.

Michael "Mike" Fitzpatrick (born 28 January 1953) is an Australian businessman, sporting administrator and former Australian rules footballer.

He is the current chairman of the Australian Football League having succeeded Ron Evans in the position in 2007.^[1] He has been an AFL commissioner since 2003.^[2]

Football career

He made his debut in the West Australian National Football League with Subiaco in 1970 and in 1973 was a member of Subiaco's first premiership in 49 years and won his first of two consecutive best and fairest awards. He mainly played the key position of ruckman.^[3]

He managed to combine his football with engineering studies at the University of Western Australia and in 1975 he was awarded a two-year Rhodes Scholarship to attend St. John's College Oxford, where he was involved in the Oxford University Australian Rules Football Club. He also signed to play with the Carlton Football Club in the then Victorian Football League, but only managed a handful of games in these years. However, by 1979 he was fully committed to football and managed to win the Carlton best and fairest award in a premiership year. He was then named captain of Carlton in 1980 and led The Blues to consecutive premierships in 1981 and 1982.

He represented both Western Australia and Victoria in state representative football and was captain of the 1982 VFL Team of the Year.

Business career

At the end of the 1983 season he surprisingly retired from football and established a career working as an adviser in the John Cain government's Victorian Treasury Department.

His career then took him to New York where he worked for International Investment Banks - Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston.

In 1994, he set up Hastings Funds Management, a successful superannuations funds company of which 51 per cent was sold to the Westpac Bank in 2002.^[4]

He is a current board member of the:

• Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
• Rio Tinto Group.^[5]

Among other positions held he:

• was previously a director of Telstra, Australian Infrastructure Fund Limited and Pacific Hydro.
• was a former chairman of the Australian Sports Commission.
• was chairman of the Victorian Funds Management Corporation and Treasury Group Ltd.
• was a director of several of Hastings' Managed Investments.^[6]

Legacy

The AFL Players Association each year awards several AFLPA Mike Fitzpatrick Scholarships to assist young football players financially to achieve excellence in both the education and football fields.^[7]

References

1. The Age, 10 March 2007, Wilson, C
2. List of AFL Administrators, AFL.com.au
3. Biography at Fullpointsfooty.net
4. The Age, 5 May 2003
5. Rio Tinto Director's Profile
6. Utilities Trust of Australia, 2004 Annual Report p22
7. AFLPA announcement

External links

• Mike Fitzpatrick's statistics from AFL Tables