Adrian Fletcher (born 10 October 1969) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er and current assistant coach. He is regarded as one of football's nomads, having played for five

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

clubs in his 13-year career. Fletcher's play relied on being an excellent play reader which resulted in him being a prolific possession gatherer, especially by

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

Early career

Fletcher was recruited from the

Tasmanian Football League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the "Tasmanian Football League (TFL)" (formerly known as the "Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL)" and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian ru ...

(TFL) club Glenorchy with the 20th selection in the

1988 VFL draft The 1988 VFL draft, held on the 9th of November 1988, was the third annual national draft held by the VFL/AFL, Victorian Football League (now known as the Australian Football League). It consisted of a pre-season draft and a national draft. In 1 ...

by the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 2022 ...

after winning the

William Leitch Medal The William Leitch Medal, named after the highly regarded former Australian rules player and Tasmanian Football Administrator William Douglas Leitch (1863-1943), was an annual award which was presented to the best and fairest player in the TANFL ...

as the best player in the TFL. He played 23 games for Geelong between 1989 and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, kicking 10 goals. Fletcher was traded to St Kilda in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, where he played 22 games, kicking 10 goals. Due to a contract dispute, he left the Saints and was selected by the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/A ...

with the 4th selection in the 1993 Pre-season draft.

Brisbane career

Fletcher made his name as a tough, ball-winning midfielder at Brisbane. Between 1993 and 1996, Fletcher played 86 of a possible 90 games, finishing in the top five of the club champion award in each year. He was a significant player in the Bears' 1996 preliminary final loss to

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

playing on the half back line. In 1997, however, his form slumped after the lack of a solid pre-season. He fought back, however, and ended up with a season average of 19 possessions per game in 21 games. However, despite a season that, although starting badly, was not considered by Fletcher to be his worst, he was traded to the Fremantle Dockers.

Fremantle career

Fletcher had an immediate impact at Fremantle, finishing second in the club's

Best and Fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award in 1998 and winning it in 1999. He was then named co-captain along with

Shaun McManus Shaun John McManus (born 9 February 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer. He is one of the most popular players to ever represent the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and is often seen as an icon or f ...

in 2000 and 2001. At the end of the 2001 season he was asked to retire by the Fremantle club despite being ranked in the AFL's top 20 for overall disposals and also was in the AFL's top five for handballs. He played 79 games for the Dockers ending up with 25 goals. While at Fremantle, Fletcher is remembered for being the player who kicked the ball to field umpire Peter Carey, when Carey famously and humorously took a chest mark in general play. After Fremantle, Fletcher played for Williamstown in the VFL in 2002 and 2003, appearing in 41 games and booting 17 goals. He was best-on-ground in the 2003 VFL grand final victory by Williamstown over Box Hill at Princes Park and received the Norm Goss Medal, as well as winning the best and fairest award during his two years with the VFL Seagulls. He was assistant coach under Brad Gotch in 2002.

Statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1989 , , 4 , , 8 , , 5 , , 1 , , 76 , , 53 , , 129 , , 22 , , 4 , , 0.6 , , 0.1 , , 9.5 , , 6.6 , , 16.1 , , 2.8 , , 0.5 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, , 4 , , 9 , , 3 , , 2 , , 106 , , 93 , , 199 , , 23 , , 11 , , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 11.8 , , 10.3 , , 22.1 , , 2.6 , , 1.2 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 4 , , 6 , , 2 , , 0 , , 68 , , 62 , , 130 , , 19 , , 10 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 11.3 , , 10.3 , , 21.7 , , 3.2 , , 1.7 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 16 , , 22 , , 10 , , 7 , , 231 , , 223 , , 454 , , 73 , , 38 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 10.5 , , 10.1 , , 20.6 , , 3.3 , , 1.7 , , 5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1993 , , 6 , , 20 , , 15 , , 6 , , 236 , , 235 , , 471 , , 87 , , 41 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 11.8 , , 11.8 , , 23.6 , , 4.4 , , 2.1 , , 4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, , 6 , , 19 , , 5 , , 5 , , 236 , , 213 , , 449 , , 68 , , 35 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 12.4 , , 11.2 , , 23.6 , , 3.6 , , 1.8 , , 6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, , 6 , , 23 , , 14 , , 11 , , 319 , , 294 , , 613 , , 96 , , 49 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 13.9 , , 12.8 , , 26.7 , , 4.2 , , 2.1 , , 7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, , 6 , , 24 , , 15 , , 17 , , 341 , , 239 , , 580 , , 90 , , 61 , , 0.6 , , 0.7 , , 14.2 , , 10.0 , , 24.2 , , 3.8 , , 2.5 , , 14 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, , 6 , , 21 , , 4 , , 10 , , 238 , , 172 , , 410 , , 84 , , 59 , , 0.2 , , 0.5 , , 11.3 , , 8.2 , , 19.5 , , 4.0 , , 2.8 , , 8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, , 2 , , 16 , , 8 , , 6 , , 225 , , 142 , , 367 , , 68 , , 40 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 14.1 , , 8.9 , , 22.9 , , 4.3 , , 2.5 , , 3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, , 2 , , 22 , , 9 , , 5 , , 298 , , 283 , , 581 , , 105 , , 38 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 13.5 , , 12.9 , , 26.4 , , 4.8 , , 1.7 , , 15 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, , 2 , , 20 , , 4 , , 2 , , 215 , , 220 , , 435 , , 67 , , 53 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 10.8 , , 11.0 , , 21.8 , , 3.4 , , 2.7 , , 10 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, , 2 , , 21 , , 3 , , 5 , , 230 , , 250 , , 480 , , 97 , , 54 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 11.0 , , 11.9 , , 22.9 , , 4.6 , , 2.6 , , 3 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 231 ! 97 ! 77 ! 2819 ! 2479 ! 5298 ! 899 ! 493 ! 0.4 ! 0.3 ! 12.2 ! 10.7 ! 22.9 ! 3.9 ! 2.1 ! 76

Post AFL and coaching career

After being delisted by Fremantle after the 2001 season and not being drafted by another AFL club, Fletcher retired from the AFL, and played for

Williamstown Football Club The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed The Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne. The club currently competes in the men's and women's Victorian Football League and VFLW competitions. History The Williamstown Fo ...

in the VFL for two years. He won the Williamstown best and fairest award in both these seasons and also won the Norm Goss Medal for best on ground in the 2003 VFL grand final, Fletcher's last game of senior football. He also was a development coach for the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

(Williamstown's AFL-affiliate) during this time. In 2004, Fletcher joined the

as an assistant coach, before returning to Collingwood in 2005 as their midfield coach. After the 2007 season he left Collingwood and returned to the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

as an assistant coach, where he remains as of 2011. He has made several appearances in

AFL Legends Match The E. J. Whitten Legends Game was an annual Australian sports entertainment Australian rules football match. It is played for charity played as an all-star game. Retired star players are reunited, along with selected non-footballing celebrities ...

es. His wife, Narelle Fletcher, played 295 games in the

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Baske ...

.Howell, Stephen (30 January 2003
Veteran Fletcher ices a stunning career
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Adrian 1969 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Tasmania Brisbane Bears players Brisbane Lions players Geelong Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Fremantle Football Club players Doig Medal winners Williamstown Football Club players William Leitch Medal winners Glenorchy Football Club players Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees Allies State of Origin players Tasmanian State of Origin players Fremantle Football Club captains