Jess Sinclair (born 26 August 1978) 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 formerly played 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 ...

, Sinclair was a dashing half back flanker who had played for first the

Fremantle Dockers 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 Fr ...

, and later the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

Fremantle career

Jess represented

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

for the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

before being drafted to Fremantle in the 1996 AFL Draft with selection 31. He was seen as a development player and had a breakout year in 1998, playing in 20 of the 22 games, winning an

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 ...

nomination and finishing 10th in the club

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. However he did not continue to develop in the coming years and after playing only 21 more games for a total of 50 at Fremantle, he was traded to the Kangaroos at the end of the 2000 season as part of the Peter Bell trade.

North Melbourne career

Sinclair transformed from a wingman to become a rebounding defender in 2002. In 2003 he had an above average year before ending badly in Round 20 by earning a five match suspension that delayed his start to 2004. His form decreased in 2004, playing only 17 games for 245 possessions. Since 2005 Sinclair has become more consistent, playing over 20 games each season, including every game in 2007 and finishing in the top 10 in the Syd Barker Medal in 2006. He announced his retirement from

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

football on 10 September 2008, at the age of 30. After retiring from the AFL, Sinclair played for the

Heidelberg Football Club Heidelberg Football Club is an Australian rules football club in Heidelberg, Victoria, currently competing in the Northern Football League. History Established in 1876, Heidelberg Football Club is one of the oldest Australian rules football club ...

in the

Northern Football League The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division ...

from 2009 until 2013, and played in the club's 2009 premiership team. He retired from playing at the end of 2013, and will coach St Mary's/Salesian in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division 4. In addition there ...

from 2014.

References

External links

* 1978 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Fremantle Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club players South Fremantle Football Club players Eastern Ranges players Heidelberg Football Club players {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub