Andrew Donnelly (born 29 March 1973) 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

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

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). Although Donnelly, a half forward, was drafted by Sydney in the 1992 AFL Draft he remained at WAFL club Subiaco in 1993. He however made the move to Sydney in 1994 but only played in their reserves and returned to Subiaco in 1995. After winning Subiaco's 1995 "Best and Fairest" award, Donnelly was signed up West Coast through the pre-season draft. Donnelly was a solid contributor to West Coast in their run to the second week of finals in 1996, playing 20 games. He had 118 marks, the second most by a West Coast player and kicked 28 goals, the third most. In just his third league game, against

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, he kicked four goals and had 25 disposals to earn best on ground honours at the Brownlow Medal night. He was awarded the best first year player award for 1996 by the Eagles, beating

Ben Cousins Benjamin Luke Cousins (born 30 June 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for and in the Australian Football League (AFL). Cousins is listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the fifty greatest players of ...

who also made his debut that year and won the 1996 AFL Rising Star award. He struggled with various injuries during the rest of his time with the Eagles and retired in 2001, after another season playing for Subiaco. He is now the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of insurance firm Australian Reliance, which is a partner of the West Coast Eagles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donnelly, Andrew 1973 births West Coast Eagles players Subiaco Football Club players Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Western Australian State of Origin players