Leon Cameron (born 2 September 1972) is a former Australian rules footballer who is the former senior coach of the Greater Western Sydney Giants (GWS) in the Australian Football League (AFL). His AFL playing career lasted from 1990 to 2003 and included 256 senior games – 172 for the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

and 84 for .

AFL playing career

Footscray/Western Bulldogs

Cameron was recruited from

South Warrnambool Football Club The South Warrnambool Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Roosters'', is an Australian rules football and netball club which competes in the Hampden Football League. It is based in the regional Victorian city of Warrnambool and have played ...

with the 7th selection in the 1988 National Draft for the

Footscray Football Club The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

(Bulldogs). He played 172 games and kicked 68 goals for the

Bulldogs The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.Charles Sutton Medal The Charles Sutton Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged best and fairest for the Western Bulldogs throughout the Victorian Football League/ Australian Football League season. The medal is named a ...

in 1993 and

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

Footballer of the Year award in 1995.

Richmond

In 2000, Cameron was traded to the Richmond Football Club where he played a further 84 games and kicked 40 goals over four seasons before retiring at the end of the

2003 AFL season The 2003 AFL season was the 107th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured six ...

AFL coaching career

Assistant coaching roles

After retirement Cameron returned to the

as an assistant coach from 2004 to the end of 2010. In September 2010 he accepted an assistant coaching role 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 ...

, playing an instrumental role in the club as they reached the

2012 AFL Grand Final The 2012 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and the Sydney Swans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 29 September 2012. It was the 117th annual grand final of the Australian Foot ...

, which was lost to the Swans. It was Cameron's first Grand Final as an AFL player or coach after three preliminary final losses as a player (two at the Western Bulldogs and one at ) and another four as an assistant coach (three at the Bulldogs and one at Hawthorn). Cameron then joined Greater Western Sydney as the senior assistant coach for the 2013 season with a contract that appointed him as the senior coach from 2014.

First senior coaching role

Greater Western Sydney

On 1 September 2013, after Kevin Sheedy coached his 679th and final game as a senior coach in the VFL-AFL, the competing teams formed a guard of honour for Sheedy and a handover ceremony took place with Sheedy passing the baton to Leon Cameron who succeeded him as senior coach."Gary Ablett stars as Kevin Sheedy's coaching career ends with an 83-point loss"
''News Ltd'', 1 September 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013. Cameron's contract, signed in October 2012, stipulated one year as senior assistant coach under senior coach Sheedy and then 3 years as the senior coach. Cameron's tenure saw the Giants reach five out of a possible six finals series between 2016 and 2021, the most memorable among those being the Giants' narrow preliminary final loss to eventual premiers the , as well as Greater Western Sydney's inaugural grand final appearance in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, where they were defeated by by 89 points. Despite the Giants making the

2021 AFL finals series The 2021 Australian Football League finals series was the 125th annual edition of the VFL/AFL finals series. The series was played over five weeks in August and September, culminating in the 2021 AFL Grand Final. The top eight teams from the ...

, Cameron resigned as senior coach of GWS Giants on 12 May 2022 after eight years in the senior coaching role. This followed a string of poor on-field results for the Giants, and saw Cameron replaced by assistant coach

Mark McVeigh Mark McVeigh (born 26 January 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League. He served as the caretaker senior coach of the Greater Western Sydney Giants followin ...

as GWS caretaker senior coach for the rest of the 2022 season, following a farewell game against Carlton in Round 9, 2022. In the match, GWS lost by a margin of 30 points, and Cameron left the field through a guard of honour from both sides.

Statistics

Playing statistics

: , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 20 , , 8 , , 10 , , 258 , , 129 , , 387 , , 74 , , 13 , , 0.4 , , 0.5 , , 12.9 , , 6.5 , , 19.4 , , 3.7 , , 0.7 , , 10 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 19 , , 10 , , 11 , , 241 , , 79 , , 320 , , 57 , , 10 , , 0.5 , , 0.6 , , 12.7 , , 4.2 , , 16.8 , , 3.0 , , 0.5 , , 2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1992 , style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 3 , , 0 , , 0 , , 22 , , 7 , , 29 , , 1 , , 0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 7.3 , , 2.3 , , 9.7 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 19 , , 8 , , 11 , , 314 , , 123 , , 437 , , 59 , , 24 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 16.5 , , 6.5 , , 23.0 , , 3.1 , , 1.3 , , 14 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 24 , , 13 , , 24 , , 328 , , 136 , , 464 , , 97 , , 25 , , 0.5 , , 1.0 , , 13.7 , , 5.7 , , 19.3 , , 4.0 , , 1.0 , , 13 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 23 , , 7 , , 19 , , 336 , , 135 , , 471 , , 85 , , 24 , , 0.3 , , 0.8 , , 14.6 , , 5.9 , , 20.5 , , 3.7 , , 1.0 , , 7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1996 , style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 8 , , 3 , , 1 , , 74 , , 28 , , 102 , , 22 , , 9 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 9.3 , , 3.5 , , 12.8 , , 2.8 , , 1.1 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 17 , , 6 , , 10 , , 207 , , 59 , , 266 , , 62 , , 7 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 12.2 , , 3.5 , , 15.6 , , 3.6 , , 0.4 , , 3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 22 , , 6 , , 5 , , 276 , , 90 , , 366 , , 80 , , 19 , , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 12.5 , , 4.1 , , 16.6 , , 3.6 , , 0.9 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 shoot ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 18 , , 17 , , 7 , , 11 , , 164 , , 63 , , 227 , , 57 , , 6 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 9.6 , , 3.7 , , 13.4 , , 3.4 , , 0.4 , , 2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 S ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 19 , , 3 , , 3 , , 257 , , 79 , , 336 , , 73 , , 19 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 13.5 , , 4.2 , , 17.7 , , 3.8 , , 1.0 , , 3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2001 , style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 25 , , 19 , , 6 , , 344 , , 139 , , 483 , , 111 , , 33 , , 0.8 , , 0.2 , , 13.8 , , 5.6 , , 19.3 , , 4.4 , , 1.3 , , 11 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2002 , style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 19 , , 2 , , 10 , , 184 , , 91 , , 275 , , 59 , , 23 , , 0.1 , , 0.5 , , 9.7 , , 4.8 , , 14.5 , , 3.1 , , 1.2 , , 2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2003 , style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 21 , , 16 , , 4 , , 175 , , 57 , , 232 , , 90 , , 15 , , 0.8 , , 0.2 , , 8.3 , , 2.7 , , 11.0 , , 4.3 , , 0.7 , , 1 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 256 ! 108 ! 125 ! 3180 ! 1215 ! 4395 ! 927 ! 227 ! 0.4 ! 0.5 ! 12.4 ! 4.7 ! 17.2 ! 3.6 ! 0.9 ! 68

Coaching statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

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 ...

, , 22 , , 6 , , 16 , , 0 , , 27.3% , , 16 , , 18 , - , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal", 2015 , , 22 , , 11 , , 11 , , 0 , , 50.0% , , 11 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, , 24 , , 17 , , 7 , , 0 , , 70.8% , , 4 , , 18 , - , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, , 25 , , 15 , , 8 , , 2 , , 60.0% , , 4 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

, , 24 , , 14 , , 9 , , 0 , , 58.3% , , 7 , , 18 , - , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

, , 26 , , 16 , , 10 , , 1 , , 61.5% , , 6 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

, , 17 , , 8 , , 9 , , 0 , , 47.1% , , 10 , , 18 , - , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, , 24 , , 12 , , 11 , , 1 , , 52.1% , , 7 , , 18 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , scope="row" style="font-weight:normal",

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, , 9 , , 2 , , 7 , , 0 , , 22.2% , , 15 , , 18 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=2, Career totals ! 193 ! 101 ! 88 ! 4 ! 53.37% ! colspan=2, Notes

References

External links

*
GWS website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Leon 1972 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Richmond Football Club players Western Bulldogs players Greater Western Sydney Giants coaches Charles Sutton Medal winners South Warrnambool Football Club players Victorian State of Origin players