Brendan Edwards (18 March 1936 – 10 May 2021) was 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played 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 Hawt ...

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) from 1956 to 1961 and again in the 1963 season.

VFL career

Edwards was recruited for the Bendigo team of Sandhurst like his teammate Graham Arthur. He was a

Physical Education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

schoolteacher when he was selected to make his debut in 1956. It was soon apparent that Edwards was a fitness fanatic and believed like his captain, John Kennedy that footballers were not fit enough. During the 1959 season, Edwards convinced Hawthorn coach Jack Hale to adopt

circuit training Circuit training is a form of body conditioning that involves endurance training, resistance training, high-intensity aerobics, and exercises performed in a circuit, similar to high-intensity interval training. It targets strength building and mu ...

for the entire team. Edwards won the Hawthorn best and fairest award in 1960 and represented Victoria at interstate football in the same season. The following year he was voted best on ground in Hawthorn premiership win against Footscray in the 1961 VFL Grand Final. He took a year off football to concentrate on his gymnasium business. He returned to play in 1963 but only lasted nine games before rupturing his ACL against Richmond. He retired as a player and he put his energies into a chain of health clubs in Melbourne and pioneered the concept of aerobic fitness in Australia. He was awarded life membership of the Hawthorn Football Club in 1970, and named in their team of the century in 2001. In 2011 he was inducted into the Hawthorn Hall of Fame.

Honours and achievements

Hawthorn * VFL premiership player:

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

* 2× Minor premiership:

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

Individual * Hawthorn best and fairest: 1960 *

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 ...

Hall of Fame *

life member

References

External links

* * Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Hawthorn Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club Premiership players Peter Crimmins Medal winners Sandhurst Football Club players 1936 births Australian footballers at the 1956 Summer Olympics One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players {{AFL-bio-1930s-stub 2021 deaths

VFL career

Honours and achievements

See also

References

External links