Damian Houlihan (born 30 July 1975) 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 with
Collingwood 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).
Houlihan was the first of a set of four brothers to be drafted to the AFL. His younger brothers
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
and
Ryan
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*Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
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* Division of Ryan, an elector ...
also became league footballers and another brother Josh was briefly on
St Kilda's list.
A forward, he was picked up by Collingwood with the 15th selection of the
1992 AFL draft
The 1992 AFL draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League. It consisted of the main national draft, the pre-season draft and ...
. He kicked three goals with his
first three kicks in league football, against
Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
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 ...
.
[AFL Tables: Damian Houlihan]
/ref> In his fifth AFL game, against Adelaide, he was awarded three Brownlow Medal votes, despite having just 12 disposals.[ He missed three matches mid season after being suspended for striking ]Richmond
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player Chris Naish. By the end of the year he had played 11 games and a back injury would ensure he never made it into the park in 1995.
After spending the 1997 season with Tatura in the Goulburn Valley Football League, Houlihan was selected by North Melbourne in the AFL pre-season draft. North Melbourne made their second grand final in three years in 1998 and Houlihan wasn't able to break into the seniors.
Delisted by North Melbourne, he went on to have a long career in country football. His greatest performance came in the 2000 Ovens & Murray Football League (OMFL) Grand Final, playing as an assistant coach for his original club Corowa-Rutherglen, when he kicked ten goals. This broke the previous record for an OMFL grand final, which was nine goals by Albury's Doug Strang, and also helped Corowa-Rutherglen to a 108-point win, another league record.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houlihan, Damian
1975 births
Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)
Collingwood Football Club players
Corowa-Rutherglen Football Club players
Gisborne Football Club players
Tatura Football Club players
Keilor Football Club players
Living people