Alistair "Big Jack" Nicholson (born 4 March 1978) 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, who played with the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

in the

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 ...

(AFL). Nicholson was schooled at

Scotch College, Perth , motto_translation = May God be with us, as He was with our forefathers , established = , founders = , type = Independent single-sex early learning, primary, and secondary day ...

, where he was

school captain A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compul ...

in his final year of 1995. He was also co-captain of the school's

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

team. Fellow AFL footballer Rowan Jones followed Nicholson as school captain in 1996. Making his debut in 1997 in the number 44 guernsey, the large figure of the man known as "Big Jack" was a strong presence in defence for the Demons. Nicholson, a specialist key position defender, was most suited to full-back and was much maligned during his career, described by critics as "old, slow and useless" and "unfashionable". However, Nicholson was shown a lot of faith by coach

Neale Daniher Neale Francis Daniher (born 15 February 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was later the coach of the Melbourne Football Club between 1998 and 20 ...

, and was signed on until the end of the 2007 season. The next year, however, saw a sharp decline in Nicholson's career. Due to the emergence of much-improved fullback

Nathan Carroll Nathan Carroll (born 20 October 1980) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL). Carroll was recruited to the Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed th ...

, Nicholson was relegated to the

Sandringham Zebras The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed The Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne which was formed in 1929 and plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL) which was formerly called the Victorian Football Association ...

, Melbourne's VFL affiliate, for the entirety of the 2006 season. At the end of the year, he was delisted and his contract was paid out (which still had a year to run), effectively ending his AFL career. During his time with Melbourne he served on the

AFL Players' Association The AFL Players Association (AFL PA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players. The AFL PA promotes and protects its membe ...

executive committee and began working with Gemba, a sports consulting firm. After his retirement from the AFL he continued with Gemba, working up to the position of head of entertainment strategy. In September 2014 Nicholson was announced as the new chief executive officer of the

Australian Cricketers' Association The Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) is an organisation that represents the professional first-class cricketers of Australia, both past and present. It is not a formally registered Trade Union, but an Incorporated Association. Current adm ...

. In March 2021 he was announced as the new Chief Executive Officer of the AFL’s Coaches Association.

Playing statistics

, - 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 ...

, , 44 , , 1 , , 0 , , 0 , , 2 , , 2 , , 4 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.0 , , 2.0 , , 4.0 , , 2.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , - ! 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 ...

, , 44 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - 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 ...

, , 44 , , 13 , , 0 , , 0 , , 22 , , 31 , , 53 , , 17 , , 5 , , 107 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 1.7 , , 2.4 , , 4.1 , , 1.3 , , 0.4 , , 8.2 , - ! 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 ...

, , 44 , , 16 , , 0 , , 0 , , 52 , , 81 , , 133 , , 45 , , 21 , , 34 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.3 , , 5.1 , , 8.3 , , 2.8 , , 1.3 , , 2.1 , - 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 ...

, , 8 , , 22 , , 1 , , 0 , , 76 , , 116 , , 192 , , 65 , , 24 , , 45 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.5 , , 5.3 , , 8.7 , , 3.0 , , 1.1 , , 2.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, , 8 , , 11 , , 2 , , 1 , , 41 , , 38 , , 79 , , 40 , , 13 , , 7 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 3.7 , , 3.5 , , 7.2 , , 3.6 , , 1.2 , , 0.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, , 8 , , 10 , , 0 , , 0 , , 35 , , 37 , , 72 , , 30 , , 10 , , 3 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.5 , , 3.7 , , 7.2 , , 3.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, , 8 , , 23 , , 0 , , 0 , , 81 , , 98 , , 179 , , 60 , , 25 , , 4 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.5 , , 4.3 , , 7.8 , , 2.6 , , 1.1 , , 0.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, , 8 , , 14 , , 0 , , 0 , , 47 , , 43 , , 90 , , 36 , , 19 , , 4 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.4 , , 3.1 , , 6.4 , , 2.6 , , 1.4 , , 0.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , 8 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 110 ! 3 ! 1 ! 356 ! 446 ! 802 ! 295 ! 117 ! 204 ! 0.0 ! 0.0 ! 3.2 ! 4.1 ! 7.3 ! 2.7 ! 1.1 ! 1.9

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, Alistair Claremont Football Club players 1978 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Sandringham Football Club players People educated at Scotch College, Perth Australian rules footballers from Western Australia