Lenny Hayes (born 14 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer 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. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fr ...

in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1999 to 2014. He is currently an assistant coach at the St Kilda Football Club. Growing up in Sydney, Hayes played

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 Vic ...

football for the

NSW/ACT Rams The NSW/ACT Rams is an under 18 Australian rules football representative club in the TAC Cup. The team, under the guidance of AFL NSW/ACT represented New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and had the moniker of the Ram, partly ...

. He was recruited by St Kilda with the 11th pick in the 1998 National Draft and made his senior debut in round five of the 1999 season. He was nominated for the

AFL Rising Star Award 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 B ...

later in the year as well. Hayes was a first-choice player for St Kilda for virtually his whole career, other than in two seasons ( 2006 and 2011) where he would require

knee reconstruction Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL reconstruction) is a surgical tissue graft replacement of the anterior cruciate ligament, located in the knee, to restore its function after an injury. The torn ligament can either be removed fr ...

s. After playing 297 games and kicking 95 goals, he retired at the end of the 2014 season. Hayes would establish himself as one of the best midfielders in the league. He was named in the

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of 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-performed players during the season, led by ...

three times (in 2003, 2005 and 2009) and placed third in the

2009 Brownlow Medal The 2009 Brownlow Medal was the 82nd year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home and away season. Gary Ablett of the Geelong Football Club won the medal by poll ...

(behind Gary Ablett and

Chris Judd Christopher Dylan Judd (born 8 September 1983) is a former professional Australian rules footballer and captain of both the West Coast Eagles and Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Widely regarded as one of the b ...

). Hayes was a three-time winner of the Trevor Barker Award as St Kilda's

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 ...

player (in 2003, 2010 and 2012). He also spent two seasons as St Kilda's captain – in 2004 as sole captain and in 2007 as co-captain, alongside both

Luke Ball Luke Patrick Ball (born 25 May 1984) is a former professional Australian rules football player who played for the and football clubs in the Australian Football League. From 2003 to 2009 he played 142 games for the St Kilda Football Club whe ...

and

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 th ...

. Hayes played in three Grand Finals without tasting premiership success, but won the Norm Smith Medal for his performance in the drawn

2010 AFL Grand Final The 2010 AFL Grand Final was a series of two Australian rules football matches between the Collingwood Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club. They are considered the 114th and 115th grand finals of the Australian Football League (former ...

. He was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, co ...

in 2020.

Playing career

1990s

Hayes grew up in suburban Sydney and began playing junior football with Pennant Hills in the

Sydney AFL AFL Sydney is an Australian rules football League, based in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. The AFL Sydney competition comprises 126 teams from 22 clubs which play across seven senior men's divisions, five women's divisions, a Master's Divisi ...

. In 1998, Hayes was a standout player for NSW/ACT in the representative

, taking out the

Morrish Medal The Morrish Medal is an Australian rules football award. Formerly awarded to the best and fairest player in the VFL Under-19 competition (known as the Thirds prior to 1959), since 1992 the award has been given to the best player in the Victorian ...

as the best player in the competition. Hayes debuted in the AFL the following year. He started well and improved throughout the year, earning an AFL Rising Star nomination in the final round of the season (R22).

2000s

With St Kilda's current policy being that of one to rotate the captaincy to a different player each season, Hayes would be named captain ahead of 2004. After he was sworn into the role, Hayes captained 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 c ...

winning side, in what was the club's second pre-season cup win. After a strong start to the 2006 season, Hayes ruptured his

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

against 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 ...

in Round 9, requiring a minor

which sidelined him until the 2007 season. In just his fifth game back in the 2007 season he suffered a broken collarbone, sidelining him for three weeks, although he managed to come back and play 19 games for the year. Hayes was a co-captain and part of the Saints' 2007 leadership group – dubbed the "Young Saints", which also included Justin Koschitzke,

(co-captain) and

(co-captain). Additionally, others included in the leadership group were

Aaron Hamill Aaron Hamill (born 20 August 1977) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who is best known for his time at the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) when he briefly captained the club. He also played fiv ...

, Fraser Gehrig,

Nick Dal Santo Nick Dal Santo (born 22 February 1984) is the senior coach of the St Kilda Football Club in the AFL Women's competition and a retired Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda and North Melbourne in the Australian Football League ...

and Robert Harvey. Hayes played in St Kilda’s 2008 NAB Cup winning side, the club’s third pre-season cup win. In 2009, Hayes played his 200th AFL game in Round 9 against the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football in Australia, 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 t ...

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was ...

. During the match he gained 31 possessions in the Saints' 16-point victory. He finished third in the

. Hayes played in 19 of the 22 matches in the 2009 home and away rounds in which St Kilda qualified in first position for the finals series, winning the club’s third minor premiership. Hayes was recognised for his excellent season with selection in the 2009 All-Australian team as a midfield player. It was his third career selection in the All-Australian team. St Kilda made the 2009 AFL Grand Final after qualifying and preliminary final wins. Hayes played in the Grand Final in which St Kilda were defeated by 12 points.

2010s

Hayes played 25 games in 2010 (including 4 finals) and received a number of accolades for his performances during the season: * Trevor Barker Award as St Kilda's best & fairest player. * 2010 Norm Smith Medallist (1st Grand Final). * St Kilda's player of the finals series (jointly with Zac Dawson). Hayes injured his left ACL early in the 2011 season and did not play for the rest of the year. Hayes played all games in 2012 and won his third Trevor Barker Medal as St Kilda's best & fairest player for the season. He had a fantastic season and made a brilliant recovery from the ACL injury from 2011. He played his 250th game in Round 9 against eventual premiers , gaining 25 disposals in a 28-point win for the Saints. On 15 July 2014, Hayes announced his retirement in front of all his teammates and family. Out of respect, his teammates wore t-shirts with the hashtag #ilovelenny. At the time of his retirement, Hayes held the all-time VFL/AFL record for most tackles in a career, having laid 1,496 tackles at an average of 5.04 per game. He held the record until 23 April 2017, when he was overtaken by

Matt Priddis Matthew Harley Priddis (born 21 March 1985) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to being drafted, Priddis won two premierships with the Sub ...

Coaching career

After working in the media for twelve months, Hayes returned home to Sydney in 2015 and joined as an assistant coach.

Statistics

:Lenny Hayes' player profile at AFL Tables
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1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 16 , , 5 , , 5 , , 96 , , 82 , , 178 , , 30 , , 13 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 6.0 , , 5.1 , , 11.1 , , 1.9 , , 0.8 , - ! 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 , , 22 , , 10 , , 5 , , 200 , , 148 , , 348 , , 49 , , 46 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 9.1 , , 6.7 , , 15.8 , , 2.2 , , 2.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 13 , , 5 , , 1 , , 93 , , 112 , , 205 , , 37 , , 38 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 7.2 , , 8.6 , , 15.8 , , 2.8 , , 2.9 , - ! 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 independence from Indonesia and ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 20 , , 7 , , 5 , , 200 , , 203 , , 403 , , 66 , , 100 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 10.0 , , 10.2 , , 20.2 , , 3.3 , , 5.0 , - 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 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 22 , , 13 , , 6 , , 342 , , 226 , , 568 , , 93 , , 101 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 15.5 , , 10.3 , , 25.8 , , 4.2 , , 4.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 23 , , 4 , , 6 , , 266 , , 245 , , 511 , , 93 , , 129 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 11.6 , , 10.7 , , 22.2 , , 4.0 , , 5.6 , - style="background:#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 (dwarf planet), Er ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 24 , , 10 , , 15 , , 305 , , 262 , , 567 , , 111 , , 116 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 12.7 , , 10.9 , , 23.6 , , 4.6 , , 4.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2006 , style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 9 , , 4 , , 3 , , 133 , , 91 , , 224 , , 48 , , 50 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 14.8 , , 10.1 , , 24.9 , , 5.3 , , 5.6 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 19 , , 4 , , 8 , , 228 , , 204 , , 432 , , 84 , , 108 , , 0.2 , , 0.4 , , 12.0 , , 10.7 , , 22.7 , , 4.4 , , 5.7 , - ! 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;", , 7 , , 24 , , 5 , , 12 , , 256 , , 322 , , 578 , , 105 , , 144 , , 0.2 , , 0.5 , , 10.7 , , 13.4 , , 24.1 , , 4.4 , , 6.0 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 22 , , 5 , , 6 , , 310 , , 306 , , 616 , , 95 , , 139 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 14.1 , , 13.9 , , 28.0 , , 4.3 , , 6.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 25 , , 9 , , 10 , , 341 , , 344 , , 685 , , 93 , , 177 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 13.6 , , 13.8 , , 27.4 , , 3.7 , , 7.1 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2011 , style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 2 , , 1 , , 0 , , 25 , , 20 , , 45 , , 4 , , 10 , , 0.5 , , 0.0 , , 12.5 , , 10.0 , , 22.5 , , 2.0 , , 5.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 22 , , 7 , , 8 , , 255 , , 283 , , 538 , , 71 , , 130 , , 0.3 , , 0.4 , , 11.6 , , 12.9 , , 24.5 , , 3.2 , , 5.9 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 14 , , 2 , , 5 , , 157 , , 167 , , 324 , , 50 , , 64 , , 0.1 , , 0.4 , , 11.2 , , 11.9 , , 23.1 , , 3.6 , , 4.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 7 , , 19 , , 4 , , 6 , , 198 , , 247 , , 445 , , 71 , , 118 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 10.4 , , 13.0 , , 23.4 , , 3.7 , , 6.2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 296 ! 95 ! 101 ! 3405 ! 3262 ! 6667 ! 1100 ! 1483 ! 0.3 ! 0.3 ! 11.5 ! 11.0 ! 22.5 ! 3.7 ! 5.0

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Lenny 1980 births Living people All-Australians (AFL) St Kilda Football Club players Trevor Barker Award winners Australian rules footballers from Sydney NSW/ACT Rams players Norm Smith Medal winners Pennant Hills Australian Football Club players Sandringham Football Club players Australia international rules football team players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees