Bayley Fritsch (born 6 December 1996) is a professional

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 playing for 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). A

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, tall and weighing , Fritsch has the ability to play as both a high marking and small crumbing forward. Considered a late bloomer, he missed out on selection with the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

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 ...

as a junior. After winning the league rising star in the Eastern Football League, he joined the

Casey Scorpions The Casey Football Club, nicknamed the "Demons" and formerly the "Scorpions", is an Australian rules football club based in Cranbourne East, Victoria. The club, which was known until 2005 as the Springvale Football Club and the Casey Scorpions ( ...

in the

Victorian Football League 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 ...

(VFL) where he spent three seasons. The 2017 VFL season saw him win the Fothergill–Round Medal, play for Victoria in the state representative match, be named in the VFL Team of the Year, and finish runner-up in the league-leading goalkicker and Casey'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. His season saw him drafted by the Melbourne Football Club in the second round of the

2017 AFL draft The 2017 AFL draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) traded and recruited players following the completion of the 2017 AFL season. Additions to each club's playing list are not allowed a ...

and he made his AFL debut in the opening round of the

2018 AFL season The 2018 AFL season was the 122nd season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season feature ...

. It was reported in 2022 that he is datin
Natalie Perin

Early life

Fritsch was born to Pauline and Scott Fritsch on 6 December 1996. After missing out on selection with the

in the

, he played twenty-two games from 2013 to 2014 with the

Coldstream Football Club Coldstream Football & Netball Club, nicknamed the Cougars, is an Australian rules football team. It is based in the Yarra Valley of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and is part of the Eastern Football League. History Founded in 1890 in the to ...

seniors in the Eastern Football League, a club which his father played a record 360 games and his grandparents, Dianne and John Jefcott, are life members. At seventeen years of age, he was named the league rising star for division three and four for the 2014 season in which he played twelve games and kicked forty-one goals for the under 19s, and ten games and thirty-two goals for the seniors. He then joined the

(now known as the Casey Demons) in the

(VFL) at the start of the 2015 season, but experienced two injury-plagued seasons with a back fracture in 2015 and a knee injury in 2016. Fritsch enjoyed continuity in the 2017 VFL season when he played nineteen matches and kicked forty-two goals for the season to finish as the runner-up in the

Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal The Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal is awarded to the Victorian Football League player who kicks the most goals in home-and-away matches in that year. The is named in honour of Jim 'Frosty' Miller, who was the leading goalkicker of the Victorian Footba ...

as the VFL leading goalkicker. His performances for the first half of the season saw him selected for Victoria in a state representative match against Western Australia and he was named in Victoria's best players by '' The Leader'' and '' The Courier''. His first injury-free season at Casey saw him receive the Fothergill–Round Medal as the VFL's best young player and he was named on the half-forward flank in the VFL Team of the Year. Furthermore, he finished second in Casey's

behind then- player,

Jack Trengove Jack Trengove (born 2 September 1991) is a professional Australian rules footballer who most recently played for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A Australian rules football positions#Midfield, midfielde ...

. Towards the end of the season, he was being touted as a potential AFL draftee when he was one of ten VFL players invited to the Victoria combine, with Casey Demons coach,

Justin Plapp Justin Plapp (born 22 June 1977) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Justin was born in Penguin, Tasmania and attended Pengui ...

, saying Fritsch could become a "serious player" in the AFL if given the chance.

AFL career

Fritsch was recruited by the

, Casey's AFL affiliate team, with their second pick and thirty-first overall in the 2017 national draft. A few days after the draft, it was announced his guernsey number would be 31, which was made famous by

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

legend and Melbourne Hall of Fame legend,

Ron Barassi Ronald Dale Barassi Jr. (born 27 February 1936) is a former Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality. Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the game, Barassi was the first player to be inaugurated into ...

, a six-time premiership player with the club. He competed for Melbourne for the first time in the AFLX competition, in which he kicked three goals in the second match with the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

's'' Glenn McFarlane writing the early glimpse of Fritsch showed he has strong composure in attack. He played in both of Melbourne's

JLT Community Series The 2017 JLT Community Series was the Australian Football League (AFL) pre-season competition played before the 2017 home and away season. It featured 27 matches across 25 days, which began on 16 February 2017 and ended on 12 March 2017. For t ...

matches and after the first match, in which he kicked three goals and was the standout player according to

Fox Sports Australia Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as w ...

's Riley Beveridge, widespread media were noting he was a strong chance to make his AFL debut in round 1. He made his debut in the three point loss to at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

in the opening round of the 2018 season. Fristch played a significant role in Melbourne's 2021 Grand Final premiership win by kicking 6 goals, becoming the first player to kick 6 goals in a Grand Final since Adelaide's

Darren Jarman Darren Robert Jarman (born 28 January 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and for the North Adelaide Football Club in the So ...

in 1997 and earning himself 10

Norm Smith Medal The Norm Smith Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to 1990 the competition was known as the Victorian Football ...

votes placing him second best on ground. Fritsch actually kicked 7 goals that day as he managed to get a root that night.

Playing style

Described as a classy player by ''The Leader's'' Paul Amy, Fritsch is a high-marking forward and has a "penetrating left-foot with sure ball handling." With

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's Christopher Doerre writing he is untapped and "has the scope to develop into anything," Fox Sport Australia journalist, Riley Beveridge, further stated that he has the ability to add immediate X-factor.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of the 2022 season''. , - ,

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2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

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Honours and achievements

Team * AFL premiership player ():

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...

():

Individual * 3× Melbourne leading goalkicker: 2020, 2021, 2022 *

Harold Ball Memorial Trophy 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, and plays its home ...

: 2018 *

Fothergill–Round–Mitchell Medal The Fothergill–Round–Mitchell Medal is a Victorian Football League (VFL) award that is presented to the most promising young talent in the VFL competition. The medal has been awarded annually since 1989. It was originally named the Fothergill ...

: 2017

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fritsch, Bayley 1996 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Casey Demons players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Melbourne Football Club Premiership players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players