Lawrence Kimberley Brett "Laurie" Keene (born 2 January 1961) 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 for 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

VFL/AFL 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 ...

. Tall and athletic, Laurie Keene was recruited to West Coast from Subiaco, where he had been a member of premiership sides in 1986 and 1988. He could play as a key position forward or in the ruck and had topped Subiaco's goalkicking in 1985 with 70 goals as well as winning their 'Fairest and best' award in 1986. He kicked West Coast's first goal (and score) in VFL/AFL football. His career at West Coast was often interrupted by injury, most notably an Achilles tendon injury which ended his VFL/AFL career, but he had a solid debut season with 25 goals, which included a then club record haul of six against

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

at Princes Park. Keene returned to Subiaco after his stint at West Coast and played with the club until 1994, amassing 141 games. At interstate level, he was a regular

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

representative, and earned selection to the

All-Australian 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 ...

team at the 1986

State of Origin Carnival Representative matches in Australian rules football are matches between representative teams played under the Australian rules football, Australian rules, most notably of the British colonisation of Australia, colonies and later States and ter ...

. He is mostly remembered by West Coast fans for kicking West Coast's first ever goal.

References

*Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.

External links

* *
Laurie Keene
player profile page at WAFL FootyFacts {{DEFAULTSORT:Keene, Laurie 1961 births Living people West Coast Eagles players Subiaco Football Club players Western Australian State of Origin players All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian rules footballers from Western Australia