Craig William Callaghan (born 9 March 1976) 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 who played for

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 ...

and St Kilda 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). He played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and

forward pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

and began his football career at

Swan Districts The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb ...

and won the Swan Medal for the fairest and best at the club in 1994.

Fremantle Dockers

After winning the 1994

Best & Fairest award, Gerard Neesham saw him as a natural selection for

's inaugural squad for the

1995 AFL season The 1995 AFL season was the 99th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The league expanded to s ...

. Neesham was right as Callaghan became a star in his 5 years at the club, being nominated for the

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Buc ...

award in both 1995 and 1996 and finishing in the top 5 players of Fremantle's

best and fairest award 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 ...

three years in a row between 1996 and 1998.

St Kilda

In 2000 the Dockers traded Callaghan to St Kilda in exchange for Matthew Carr. Callaghan's time at the Saints was marred by injury, spending two of his four years sidelined by knee injuries. So in 2004 after only 29 games for St Kilda he decided to retire from AFL football.

Swan Districts

Callaghan returned to Western Australia to again play in the WAFL for the

. He announced his retirement on 22 July 2006, due to another knee injury.Harrison, Paul (27 July 2006
Swan Districts lose Callaghan to retirement
/ref>

References

External links

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WAFL Player Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Callaghan, Craig 1976 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Fremantle Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Swan Districts Football Club players Western Australian State of Origin players