Byron Schammer (born 21 June 1985) 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er currently playing with the Claremont Football Club in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) 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 from March to September, ...

(WAFL). He previously played with the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of ...

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 ...

Early life

Schammer rose to prominence in 2002 by winning the prestigious Larke Medal for the best player at the

AFL Under 18 Championships The AFL Under-19 Championships (for sponsorship reasons, the NAB AFL Under-19 Championships) is an annual Australian national underage representative championship in Australian rules football tournament. It is seen as one of the main pathways ...

. He also captained Australia in an under 17s International Rules Test against Ireland.

AFL career

He was taken by Fremantle later that year with the club's first selection (no. 13 overall) in the National Draft. Playing 17 games in his debut season, including the club's historic first final against Essendon, he quickly announced himself to be a player of the future, and earned a nomination for the Rising Star award. He backed it up with a strong 2004 season that saw him poll 12

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 ...

votes, despite suffering a shoulder injury mid-year. Having moved into a defensive role in 2006, he played in 24 of Fremantle's 25 games in 2006, before he was missed the first half of the 2007 season due to suffering a burst appendix and a subsequent bowel blockage during his recovery period. He only missed one game in 2008 and in 2009, during the most consistent season of his career, he signed a two-year contract extension. However Schammer struggled to maintain his place in the Fremantle side in 2010 and 2011, playing only three games in 2010 and two in 2011, despite playing well for Claremont in the

(WAFL). In August 2011, the week after playing his first AFL game for the season, Schammer announced his retirement from the AFL. He will continue to play in the WAFL and will focus on his work as a

stockbroker A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser (in the United States) who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks an ...

.Fremantle's Byron Schammer calls time on AFL career
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References

External links

Byron Schammer's profile
on the Official Website of the Fremantle Football Club *
Byron Schammer WAFL statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schammer, Byron 1985 births Living people Fremantle Football Club players Claremont Football Club players Australian people of German descent Australian stockbrokers West Adelaide Football Club players Australian rules footballers from South Australia