Andrew Collins (born 25 April 1965) is an

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

coach and former player who is currently the head of development coach for the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawth ...

. He played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian/Australian Football League. Collins was a rugged back pocket defender. He began his senior career in the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

with the

Sandringham Football Club The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed the Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham, Victoria, Sandringham. It currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the VFL Women's (VF ...

, where he was a member of the club's 1985 premiership team. He was signed by VFL/AFL club , and played 212 games over ten years with the club, winning three premierships. His durability allowed him to play a club record 189 games in succession. He finished equal fifth in the

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

, the same year he was awarded the

Peter Crimmins Medal The Peter Crimmins Medal is an Australian rules football award given to the player(s) from the Hawthorn Football Club deemed best and fairest for the season. Peter Crimmins was a rover for Hawthorn, playing from 1966 to 1975. He died of cancer j ...

as Hawthorn's best and fairest player. His last game was the "Merger game" between Hawthorn and

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

in which he got reported and ultimately suspended thus ending his consecutive run of games. When Collins retired from league football at the end of 1996, he turned to coaching. He returned to his old club Sandringham in the VFL, and coached there for two years, leading the club to the premiership in 1997. He served as an assistant coach at AFL club from 2000 to 2003, then as an assistant coach at Hawthorn in 2004 and 2005. While at Hawthorn, he also coached its Box Hill. In 2006 and 2007 he coached VFL club

Coburg Coburg ( , ) is a Town#Germany, town located on the Itz (river), Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Ernestine duchies, Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only ...

, taking the team to a losing Grand Final in 2007. In 2008, Collins moved to South Australia and coached

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

club West Adelaide for six years from 2008 to 2013. He led the club to the 2012 SANFL Grand Final where they were defeated by Norwood, and he coached the Bloods to win the 2013 Foxtel Cup over

Western Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL) side

East Fremantle East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

. In 2014, Collins returned to Victoria and signed to coach VFL club Williamstown in its first season as a stand-alone club not affiliated with an AFL club. He led the club to a premiership in 2015. Collins would lead the club to another Grand Final in 2019 where Williamston would lose by 3 points. The following year, Collins would depart the club to join Box Hill as an assistant coach. Following the 2021 season, Collins would be appointed as the head of development with Hawthorn under new coach Sam Mitchell who he had worked with at Box Hill.

Statistics

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1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

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1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

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1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

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1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

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1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

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1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

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1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

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1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

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Honours and achievements

Playing

Team * 3× VFL/AFL premiership player ():

* 2×

Minor premiership A minor premiership is the title given to the team which finishes a sporting competition first in the league standings after the regular season but prior to commencement of the finals in several Australian sports leagues. Origins The etymolo ...

():

Individual * Peter Crimmins Memorial Medal: 1990 * 4×

Victoria Australian rules football team The Victoria Australian rules football team, known colloquially as the Big V, is the state representative side of Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, in the sport of Australian rules football. The Big V has a proud history, dominating th ...

: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994

Coaching

* VFL premiership coach (): 1997 * VFL premiership coach (): 2015

References

External links

* *
VFA Playing statistics
from the VFA Project Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 1965 births Living people Hawthorn Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club premiership players Sandringham Football Club players Box Hill Football Club coaches Coburg Football Club coaches West Adelaide Football Club coaches Sandringham Football Club coaches Williamstown Football Club coaches Peter Crimmins Medal winners Victorian State of Origin players VFL/AFL premiership players 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{AFL-bio-1960s-stub