Leigh Colbert (born 7 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Geelong Football Club and 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 ...

in the Australian Football League (AFL).

AFL career

1993–1999: Geelong

He made his debut with Geelong in

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 ...

and became a fearless player, usually playing off half-back, but then found his way as a key-position player. He was awarded Geelong's captaincy in

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 ...

, but did not play a game that season due to injury. The falling out between the club and Colbert caused great controversy. He was traded for

Cameron Mooney Cameron Mooney (born 26 September 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne and Geelong Football Clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). A forward, tall and weighing , Mooney is renowned for hi ...

and draft picks that yielded, amongst others, six-time All Australian and two-time Best and Fairest winner

Corey Enright Corey Enright (born 14 September 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He has played the second-most games for . Enright is currently def ...

. Mooney retired a dual premiership player with the Cats, and Enright retired as a three-time premiership player.

2000–2005: Kangaroos

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 ...

, Colbert moved to the

, mostly holding up full-back or centre half-back. In 2004, Colbert was appointed the Kangaroos delegate for the

AFL Players Association The AFL Players Association (AFL PA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players. The AFL PA promotes and protects its membe ...

(AFLPA). In 2005, Colbert announced his retirement.

Post-football career

In 2006, Colbert joined 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 L ...

as one of their back-room staff. It was on a part-time basis, based in Melbourne. He was a boundary rider for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

, including post-match interviews and one-on-one interviews for Fox Sports AFL of the Ablett brothers, and a one-on-one interview with

Adam Simpson Adam Simpson (born 16 February 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer who is the current premiership coach of the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). A left-footed midfielder, his playing career for spanned fro ...

on his 250th game for the Kangaroos. In 2009, he was a flying instructor at Moorabbin Flight Services at

Moorabbin Airport Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport is a mostly general aviation airport for light aircraft located in between the southern Melbourne suburbs of Heatherton, Cheltenham, Dingley Village and Mentone. It also receives commercial airline service. ...

, and also a pilot for an air freight service at Moorabbin Airport. In 2020, he was announced as the new licensee of two

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

franchises in

Mildura Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...

and Irymple after the former licensees were ousted in a racism scandal.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colbert, Leigh Geelong Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club players South Bendigo Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) 1975 births Living people Victorian State of Origin players