Fraser Gehrig (born 3 March 1976) is a retired

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

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club ...

and the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

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) . Gehrig was a versatile player during his AFL career, beginning his career at

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

before becoming known as a powerful goal kicker and Coleman Medalist at St Kilda. Gehrig holds the bench press record at both West Coast and St Kilda as well as being the best

bench press The bench press, or chest press, is a weight training exercise in which the trainee presses a weight upwards while lying on a weight training bench. Although the bench press is a full-body exercise, the muscles primarily used are the pectorali ...

performer in the AFL, with many additionally regarding him as the strongest and most intimidating player in the AFL. While in the peak of his career, he was also widely regarded as the fastest player over 30 meters in any ball sport.

Early life

Gehrig grew up in

Wodonga, Victoria Wodonga ( Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA. Its population is approximately 3 ...

, and attended high school at Catholic College Wodonga. Gehrig held the school’s athletics record in the 100-metre sprint for more than 20 years.

Career

West Coast

Gehrig began his AFL career at the

playing as a utility and on the wing. He was known for his strength and versatility. Gehrig struggled to break into a powerful Eagles lineup during his first few years at the Western Australian club, but he stepped up in 1997 and won selection in the

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

in a

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 ...

. Gehrig had a season on the half-forward line in 1998, but he struggled with injury and form over the following two years and was traded to St Kilda at the end of the 2000 season. West Coast received David Sierakowski and 2000 AFL Draft selection number 18 (

Daniel Kerr Daniel Alan Kerr (born 16 May 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played 220 games for the club between 2001 and 2013, as a hard-running inside midfie ...

) from St Kilda in exchange for Gehrig.

St Kilda

Gehrig made his debut with the Saints in 2001. After initially playing at full-back in his first year at his new club, Gehrig finished second in the St Kilda

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. He switched to the full-forward position in 2003, and this move coincided with St Kilda's rise up the ladder, finishing 11th in 2003 and playing in finals matches in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Gehrig became a powerful and dominant force in the goalsquare and weighed in at 109 kilograms. He quickly became a prolific goalkicker, booting 55 goals in 2003 and 103 in 2004. A large

pitch invasion A pitch invasion (known in North America as field storming or rushing the field) occurs when a person or a crowd of people spectating a sporting event run onto the competition area, usually to celebrate or protest an incident, or sometimes as ...

by fans occurred following his 100th goal, a typical occurrence for feats of this nature. Gehrig won back-to-back

Coleman Medal The Coleman Medal is an Australian rules football award given annually to the Australian Football League (AFL) player who kicks the most goals A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer ...

s in 2004 and 2005 and was named at full-forward in the All-Australian team in 2004. Gehrig's unique style of play earned him the nicknames "G-Train" for his locomotive-like leads and strong marking. He twice kicked 10 goals in a match during his AFL career: once against Richmond and again against the Kangaroos.AFL Tables - Fraser Gehrig
from AFL Tables Gehrig was close to retirement at the end of the 2003 season, but coach Grant Thomas managed to convince him to play on. Gehrig played his 200th game in 2005, kicking seven goals against opponent Leo Barry, to help St Kilda to a 43-point win over

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. He kicked a total of 36 goals playing against Sydney. Gehrig signed a one-year deal at the end of the 2006 season and was again a prolific goal-kicker for the Saints, booting 59 goals from 20 matches. Gehrig's 250th game came against Carlton in round 17, 2007. Again, the Saints emerged victorious.

Temporary retirement

Immediately before St Kilda's last game of the 2007 season, on 1 September, Gehrig announced his retirement to the team. Unusually, he waved to the dedicated fans in the cheer squad when he came on the field, and then played well in a tight contest against Richmond. In the dying seconds of the match, Gehrig took a strong mark in St Kilda's forward line and kicked his 540th career goal, one of five that day, to secure the win. Gehrig was chaired off the ground by St Kilda players

Nick Riewoldt Nicholas Fredrick Riewoldt ( ; born 17 October 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was the first draft selection in the 2000 AFL draft. He was the ...

and

Justin Koschitzke Justin Gregory Koschitzke (born 20 September 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League. He played 200 games and kicked 247 goals for the club between 2001 and 2013 ...

, bare-chested after giving his famous number-nine jumper to a young female fan in the stands.

Comeback

Three months later Gehrig shocked many by changing his mind and deciding that he wished to continue playing with St Kilda. Having already been removed from St Kilda's playing list, Gehrig was forced to return via one of the AFL drafts and opted for the national draft over the pre-season draft. This option forced Gehrig onto the standard two-year draftees' contract, but allowed the club to redraft him without using an early pre-season draft selection. St Kilda re-drafted Gehrig with its fourth-round selection (#57 overall). After a few lacklustre games, many feared that Gehrig had lost his form and fitness and he was dropped to the reserves. In a last-ditch effort to kickstart his playing career, the coach selected him in the senior list, but he failed to have any impact. Gehrig revealed that he was suffering from painful arthritis, which affected his game and required surgery. St Kilda then put him on its long-term injury list. This move onto the long-term injury list, instead of retirement, meant that St Kilda were able to elevate

Robert Eddy Robert Eddy (born 7 January 1988) is an Australian rules footballer, currently playing for Woodville-West Torrens Football Club in the South Australian National Football League. He previously played for in the Australian Football League (AFL) ...

from the

rookie list The rookie list is a means for Australian Football League (AFL) clubs to maintain additional players outside the 38-man primary or senior list. Rookie listed players are not eligible to play in AFL home-and-away or finals matches unless they are e ...

. Gehrig's subsequent return to the senior list was a precaution in case of injury to other players, though he did not play for the remainder of the season.

Statistics

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1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 16 , , 21 , , 4 , , 119 , , 51 , , 170 , , 73 , , 11 , , 1.3 , , 0.3 , , 7.4 , , 3.2 , , 10.6 , , 4.6 , , 0.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1996 , style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 24 , , 12 , , 8 , , 183 , , 117 , , 300 , , 99 , , 22 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 7.6 , , 4.9 , , 12.5 , , 4.1 , , 0.9 , -style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 22 , , 31 , , 17 , , 223 , , 80 , , 303 , , 115 , , 21 , , 1.4 , , 0.8 , , 10.1 , , 3.6 , , 13.8 , , 5.2 , , 1.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1998 , style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 23 , , 42 , , 19 , , 200 , , 92 , , 292 , , 144 , , 18 , , 1.8 , , 0.8 , , 8.7 , , 4.0 , , 12.7 , , 6.3 , , 0.8 , -style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1999 , style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 11 , , 19 , , 9 , , 85 , , 46 , , 131 , , 61 , , 8 , , 1.7 , , 0.8 , , 7.7 , , 4.2 , , 11.9 , , 5.5 , , 0.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 19 , , 34 , , 17 , , 164 , , 77 , , 241 , , 108 , , 15 , , 1.8 , , 0.9 , , 8.6 , , 4.1 , , 12.7 , , 5.7 , , 0.8 , -style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 20 , , 3 , , 5 , , 173 , , 83 , , 256 , , 97 , , 16 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 8.7 , , 4.2 , , 12.8 , , 4.9 , , 0.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 12 , , 12 , , 9 , , 81 , , 64 , , 145 , , 60 , , 9 , , 1.0 , , 0.8 , , 6.8 , , 5.3 , , 12.1 , , 5.0 , , 0.8 , -style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 21 , , 55 , , 34 , , 190 , , 62 , , 252 , , 129 , , 22 , , 2.6 , , 1.6 , , 9.0 , , 3.0 , , 12.0 , , 6.1 , , 1.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2004 , style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 23 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 103 , , 39 , , 184 , , 54 , , 238 , , 131 , , 18 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 4.5 , , 1.7 , , 8.0 , , 2.3 , , 10.3 , , 5.7 , , 0.8 , -style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 22 , , bgcolor="CFECEC", 78 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 49 , , 177 , , 41 , , 218 , , 114 , , 12 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 3.5 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 2.2 , , 8.0 , , 1.9 , , 9.9 , , 5.2 , , 0.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 22 , , 71 , , 37 , , 173 , , 39 , , 212 , , 123 , , 12 , , 3.2 , , 1.7 , , 7.9 , , 1.8 , , 9.6 , , 5.6 , , 0.5 , -style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2007 , style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 20 , , 59 , , 35 , , 173 , , 34 , , 207 , , 110 , , 14 , , 3.0 , , 1.8 , , 8.7 , , 1.7 , , 10.4 , , 5.5 , , 0.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 5 , , 9 , , 3 , , 25 , , 7 , , 32 , , 18 , , 1 , , 1.8 , , 0.6 , , 5.0 , , 1.4 , , 6.4 , , 3.6 , , 0.2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 260 ! 549 ! 285 ! 2150 ! 847 ! 2997 ! 1382 ! 199 ! 2.1 ! 1.1 ! 8.3 ! 3.3 ! 11.5 ! 5.3 ! 0.8

Career highlights

* AFL Rising Star nominee, 1995 * All-Australian 1997, 2004 * West Coast leading goalkicker, 1998 * 2nd in St Kilda Best and Fairest, 2001 * St Kilda leading goalkicker, 2003–2007 * St Kilda's

2004 Wizard Home Loans Cup The 2004 Wizard Home Loans Cup was the Australian Football League competition played in its entirety before the Australian Football League's 2004 Premiership Season began. The AFL National Cup is also sometimes referred to as the pre-season cup ...

–winning side, 2004 * Coleman Medalist 2004, 2005

Controversies

Gehrig was involved in some off-field indiscretions during his time with both St Kilda and West Coast. It was alleged that Gehrig urinated on a patron at a nightclub, although no formal accusations were made. Gehrig was also charged with the unlawful assault of a woman in an alleged incident during Grand Final week in 2006. Gehrig, with

Steven Lawrence Steven James Lawrence (born 19 May 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer. He is the son of St Kilda star Barry Lawrence. Brisbane career Debuting with the Brisbane Bears in 1995, Lawrence was a solid half back flanker who enjoyed ...

and former

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

captain

Michael Voss Michael Voss (born 7 July 1975) is a former professional Australian rules football player with the Brisbane Bears/Lions and current senior coach of the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Voss was a triple premiersh ...

, were all charged over a fight in a St Kilda hotel.Fraser Gehring to face court
– Herald Sun, 5 September 2007 Some of Gehrig's on-field incidents earned him penalties, with suspensions mainly for striking incidents against opposition players (once in

, twice in 2004, once in

and once in 2007). As well as this, in the "

Sirengate The AFL siren controversy (dubbed Sirengate) surrounded the conclusion and result of an Australian rules football match played on 30 April 2006 during Round 5 of the Australian Football League's 2006 season. The match was played between the ...

" match in 2006, Gehrig conceded five consecutive free kicks whilst scuffling with Fremantle's defenders, three of which were converted into 50-metre penalties, which led to his direct opponent, Michael Johnson, walking the length of the field to give Fremantle a 33-point lead. Gehrig was benched after the indiscretions, but it also appeared to be the turning point in the match, and St Kilda eventually only lost by one point in controversial circumstances.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gehrig, Fraser 1976 births Living people St Kilda Football Club players West Coast Eagles players Australian people of German descent Coleman Medal winners All-Australians (AFL) Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Murray Bushrangers players Wodonga Raiders Football Club players People from Wodonga Perth Football Club players