Mark McGough (born 22 June 1984) is 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 ...

player who played with the Collingwood and St Kilda football clubs in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL).

AFL career

He was selected by Collingwood in the third round of the

2001 AFL Draft The 2001 AFL draft consisted of a state draft, a body draft, a pre-season draft and a trade period. The AFL draft is the annual draft of players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Aust ...

. Aged 17, and in just his second game of senior football, McGough was awarded the AFL Anzac Medal as the best on ground in the 2002

Anzac Day clash The Anzac Day match is an annual Australian rules football match between Collingwood and Essendon, two clubs in the Australian Football League, held on Anzac Day (25 April) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). History of Australian rul ...

between Collingwood and

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

. In 2011, before his last Anzac day match as Collingwood coach,

Mick Malthouse Michael Raymond Malthouse (born 17 August 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After finishing his playing career, Maltho ...

said his favourite memory from his 11 Anzac Day encounters was seeing McGough win the Anzac Medal. Despite being regarded as a good wet weather player, his lack of pace prevented him from being regularly selected to play for Collingwood's senior side. After playing 37 senior matches in three years, McGough was delisted at the end of the 2004 season. McGough was picked by the

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club ...

in the third round of the 2004 AFL Draft, and played nine senior matches for the club in the 2005 season. He was delisted by St Kilda at the end of 2006, having played just three games for the year.

After AFL

After his AFL career, McGough spent part of 2007 on an exchange program in the United States, studying journalism at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

and later that year spent time in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. In 2008 he returned to Australia, where he played football with the

Montmorency Football Club Montmorency Football Club is an Australian rules football club in Montmorency, Victoria, currently competing in Division 1 in the Northern Football League. History The club was formed in 1924 by Harold Hodgson and was original based at Memorial ...

in Victoria's

Northern Football League The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division ...

. In 2010, he joined the

East Fremantle Football Club The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team's home ground is East Fremantle Oval. East Fremantle are the ...

in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

and was club captain until the end of the 2013 season. He then became a teacher at high schools in Perth such as Seton Catholic College and Emmanuel Catholic College.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGough, Mark Australian rules footballers from New South Wales Collingwood Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Murray Bushrangers players East Fremantle Football Club players Montmorency Football Club players 1984 births Living people Australian schoolteachers