Anthony Rock (born 29 September 1970) 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 for

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 ...

and

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

in the

VFL/AFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

Junior career

Rock played his junior football at St Dominic's Junior FC—a club that later folded due to lack of parent volunteers, leaving him without a club at age 13. He moved to the

Hadfield Football Club The Essendon District Football League (EDFL) is a professional Australian rules football league competition based in Essendon, Victoria, consisting of teams based in the north-west suburbs of Melbourne. Founded in 1930, the men's competition ...

, and it was this club from which he was recruited by

AFL career

He made his debut in the league during the 1988 season with

. He stayed with the club a further 3 years after playing in their 1996 centenary premiership, moving to Hawthorn until his retirement in 2001. His final game was with VFL affiliate Box Hill Hawks, securing another flag in the club's first premiership.

Coaching career

From 2002 to 2004, Rock was the head coach and development manager of the

North Ballarat Rebels The Greater Western Victoria Rebels is an Australian rules football club which plays in the NAB League, the statewide under-18s competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Initially known as the Ballarat Rebels and wearing green an ...

in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

. During this period, Rock guided many young players into AFL careers. Among those drafted under his tutelage were

Jed Adcock Jed Adcock (born 15 November 1985) is a former professional Australian rules footballer and current coach who played for the and in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was co-captain of the Brisbane Lions in 2013 and sole captain in 2014 ...

, Clinton Young, Troy Chaplin,

Shaun Grigg Shaun Grigg (born 19 April 1988) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played 171 games for and 43 games for over a 13 year AFL career. He was a premiership player with Richmond in 2017, an Under 18 All Australian and twic ...

Liam Picken Liam Picken (born 1 August 1986) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 2009 to 2017. In 2016 he played in the Bulldogs' premiership team (the club's first since ...

Matt Rosa Matthew Rosa (born 23 November 1986) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally from Warracknabeal and later Ballarat, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

Michael Jamieson Michael Jamieson (born 5 August 1988) is a Scottish former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain at the Olympics, FINA world championships and European championships, and Scotland in the Commonwealth Games. Jamieson won the silver ...

and

Brad Sewell Brad Sewell (born 2 February 1984) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League. Early life Sewell played junior football at the Newlyn Football Club which is part of ...

. From 2005 to 2008, Rock was the Midfield Coach at Melbourne, St. Kilda, and then back to North Melbourne after departing the AFL system. During this period (2011–2015), it was announced that Rock would become the new senior Coach at Greenvale in the

Essendon District Football League The Essendon District Football League (EDFL) is a professional Australian rules football league competition based in Essendon, Victoria, consisting of teams based in the north-west suburbs of Melbourne. Founded in 1930, the men's competition c ...

. Here, he led the club to back-to-back Premierships (2012/13) before heading to St Bernards Old Collegians in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division 4. In addition there ...

, where he coached them to a flag in the 2015 Premier Division. His time at St. Bernard's saw a further two of his players drafted in

Mitch Hannan Mitchell Hannan (born 9 March 1994) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL), having been initially drafted to the Melbourne Football Club. A forward, tall and w ...

(Melbourne) and

Ben Ronke Benjamin Ronke (born 18 December 1997) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted by Sydney with their first selection and seventeenth overall ...

(Sydney). He then joined

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

as a development coach for the 2016 season and was then promoted to their Midfield Coach from 2017 to 2019.

Accelerate program

In 2010, the AFLPA supported Anthony Rock with his Accelerate program which provided a unique opportunity for 20 young men rejected by the AFL draft the first time around by putting together an infrastructure of expertise in a bid to keep the game's most talented second-tier players from 18 to 23 in the correct physical and emotional state to win a second chance. In partnership with sports consulting group Infront, three major sponsors, and the AFLPA's support, Rock was able to set up partnerships with seven VFL clubs and worked with 20 footballers hoping to be drafted.

Statistics

:Anthony Rock's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 52 , , 4 , , 2 , , 0 , , 21 , , 8 , , 29 , , 2 , , 3 , , 0.5 , , 0.0 , , 5.3 , , 2.0 , , 7.3 , , 0.5 , , 0.8 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1989 , style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , , 14 , , 13 , , 27 , , 4 , , 2 , , 0.0 , , 1.0 , , 14.0 , , 13.0 , , 27.0 , , 4.0 , , 2.0 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 14 , , 13 , , 14 , , 212 , , 63 , , 275 , , 39 , , 24 , , 0.9 , , 1.0 , , 15.1 , , 4.5 , , 19.6 , , 2.8 , , 1.7 , , 7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 25 , , 14 , , 301 , , 144 , , 445 , , 62 , , 24 , , 1.3 , , 0.7 , , 15.1 , , 7.2 , , 22.3 , , 3.1 , , 1.2 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 9 , , 9 , , 6 , , 140 , , 58 , , 198 , , 25 , , 11 , , 1.0 , , 0.7 , , 15.6 , , 6.4 , , 22.0 , , 2.8 , , 1.2 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1993 , style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 17 , , 14 , , 9 , , 249 , , 73 , , 322 , , 34 , , 19 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 14.6 , , 4.3 , , 18.9 , , 2.0 , , 1.1 , , 2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 23 , , 11 , , 16 , , 243 , , 114 , , 357 , , 39 , , 33 , , 0.5 , , 0.7 , , 10.6 , , 5.0 , , 15.5 , , 1.7 , , 1.4 , , 1 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 24 , , 19 , , 13 , , 273 , , 114 , , 387 , , 59 , , 38 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 11.4 , , 4.8 , , 16.1 , , 2.5 , , 1.6 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

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 ...

† , style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 25 , , 23 , , 24 , , 368 , , 159 , , 527 , , 95 , , 43 , , 0.9 , , 1.0 , , 14.7 , , 6.4 , , 21.1 , , 3.8 , , 1.7 , , 3 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 22 , , 14 , , 9 , , 297 , , 115 , , 412 , , 69 , , 40 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 13.5 , , 5.2 , , 18.7 , , 3.1 , , 1.8 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1998 , style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 19 , , 8 , , 8 , , 157 , , 81 , , 238 , , 44 , , 17 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 8.3 , , 4.3 , , 12.5 , , 2.3 , , 0.9 , , 5 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 15 , , 7 , , 6 , , 129 , , 85 , , 214 , , 40 , , 23 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 8.6 , , 5.7 , , 14.3 , , 2.7 , , 1.5 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 24 , , 10 , , 4 , , 235 , , 129 , , 364 , , 91 , , 32 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 9.8 , , 5.4 , , 15.2 , , 3.8 , , 1.3 , , 0 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 5 , , 0 , , 1 , , 35 , , 21 , , 56 , , 15 , , 11 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 7.0 , , 4.2 , , 11.2 , , 3.0 , , 2.2 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 222 ! 155 ! 125 ! 2674 ! 1177 ! 3851 ! 618 ! 320 ! 0.7 ! 0.6 ! 12.0 ! 5.3 ! 17.3 ! 2.8 ! 1.4 ! 19

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rock, Anthony 1970 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) North Melbourne Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club Premiership players Hawthorn Football Club players Victorian State of Origin players Box Hill Football Club players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players