Kevin Coverdale (31 May 1940 – 4 April 1997) was 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 with

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). Coverdale first joined Hawthorn in 1959 and played VFL reserves football before returning to his home town of

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale () ( Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia in a region traditionally owned by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 15,411 at Ju ...

due to work commitments. He also had the misfortune of being injured in two separate car accidents during his early career. Nevertheless he won the La Trobe Valley Football League's "Best and Fairest" award in 1961, following a strong season with Bairnsdale.Gippsland League, accessed 25 September 2019
/ref> He was cleared to Hawthorn for the 1963 season and would kick 21 goals from his 20 senior games that year. A centre half forward, he appeared for Hawthorn in the

1963 VFL Grand Final The 1963 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 5 October 1963. It was the 66th annual AFL Grand Final, ...

, which they lost. After playing two more seasons he left Melbourne and rejoined Bairnsdale, which he would captain. He was awarded 10

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

votes in his VFL career.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coverdale, Kevin 1940 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Hawthorn Football Club players Bairnsdale Football Club players 1997 deaths