Ian Callinan (born 20 December 1982) is a former professional

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 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 ...

, playing with the Adelaide Crows. He was the league's smallest player during his career, standing at only 172 cm. He played as both a midfielder and a small forward during his career.

Playing career

Junior

Callinan played his junior football in Tasmania, initially at Rokeby, before joining Lauderdale as an Under-16 and

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a loca ...

as an Under-18. He regularly represented Tasmania in junior representative football, most notably in the AFL National Under-18s championships in 2000, where he won the Hunter-Harrison Medal as the tournament's Division Two

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 ...

, and was selected in the Under-18 All-Australian team as a forward pocket. Callinan nominated for 2000 AFL Draft, but was not selected.

State level

Callinan first played senior football for

and was a member of that club's Tasmanian State League premiership winning team in 2000. The next season, he was recruited to play for the new Tasmanian Devils Football Club in the Victorian Football League. Callinan became one of the stars of the league, and in 2005 he won the

J. J. Liston Trophy The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football Association). It is named after J.J. Liston, a businessman, civic leader and sports administrato ...

(in a tie with Paul Johnson of Sandringham) as the league's

, as well as the club

. He played more than 100 games with the Devils between 2001 and 2006. In 2007, Callinan moved to Central District in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). In four seasons with Central Districts, Callinan won four premierships (2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010), winning the Jack Oatey Medal as best on ground in the 2010 Grand Final, and two club

awards (2007, 2010). He was also Centrals leading goalkicker in 2007 and 2010.

Professional career

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, Callinan was recruited to the AFL as a rookie by the

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...

, with a fourth round draft pick in the 2011 AFL rookie draft (No. 64 overall). He had undergone pre-season training with at least four different AFL clubs during his career, but this was the first time he was recruited. After a biceps injury in a pre-season match sidelined him for half of the season, he made his AFL debut at age 28 in Round 14, 2011, against , and played a total of three AFL matches for the season. He continued to play for Centrals when on reserve for Adelaide. Callinan played 32 senior games over three seasons for the Crows before being delisted at the end of 2013. In 2014, Callinan became the inaugural captain of the Adelaide Crows reserves team, which was entering the SANFL that season, also taking an assistant development coaching role in the team, serving in the role until the end of 2015. He returned to Tasmania and played for Clarence in 2016.

Personal life

Before playing football professionally, Callinan earned his living as an Air Conditioning Installer. Callinan is married to Lauren (née James), daughter of former All-Australian Sandy Bay footballer

Des James Des James is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Sandy Bay in the Tasmanian Football League (TFL). James, a back pocket, is noted his performances at the 1979 Perth State of Origin Carnival, which earned him a spot in the All-Au ...

. The couple has two, sons Jack and Harry.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Callinan, Ian 1982 births Living people Adelaide Football Club players Central District Football Club players Tasmanian Devils Football Club players Clarence Football Club players Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) players Australian rules footballers from Tasmania Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees