Mathew Capuano (born 2 September 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who spent his

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

career with the North Melbourne Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club. Post playing career Capuano was a development coach at the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Me ...

. He was famously sacked by St. Kilda during the 2003 season.

Kangaroos career

Capuano made his AFL debut for North Melbourne in the 1994 season; He played a total of 82 games for the Kangaroos, and was a member of the club's 1996 and

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 ...

premiership side.

St Kilda career

Capuano's career with the Saints was plagued by shoulder and knee injuries. He played 25 games in his three seasons for the Saints. Although making his 100th AFL appearance in Round 8, 2002, he underwent a knee surgery after Round 9 and missed all remaining AFL games that season.

Mid-season sacking

After making six appearances in the first nine rounds of the 2003 season, Capuano was sacked by the Saints. The coach, Grant Thomas, explained that Capuano's poor form led to his sacking. While it is suggested that the young and rising Saints did not need Capuano's service anymore, the Saints were also criticised for axing Capuano at the wrong time as

Trent Knobel Trent Knobel (born 23 May 1980) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. Knobel, a ruckman originally from the Gold Coast, was recruited to the AFL in his home state with the Brisbane Lions onto their rookie ...

and Barry Brooks, their other two ruckmen, were both injured at the time. Although a number of VFL clubs sought Capuano's services after he was sacked, he did not accept any offers and spent the latter half of 2003 travelling Europe. He also did not nominate for the 2003 AFL Draft and spent 2004 playing for 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 ...

Coaching

Capuano signed with the

in 2009 to coach their ruckmen on a part-time basis. The following season, the Blues made Capuano a full-time development coach and a direct ruck coach. He remained with Carlton in the development role until the end of the 2017 AFL season.

Playing statistics

: , - 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 ...

, , 40 , , 3 , , 1 , , 0 , , 3 , , 4 , , 7 , , 6 , , 3 , , 3 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 1.0 , , 1.3 , , 2.3 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , - ! 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 ...

, , 16 , , 15 , , 5 , , 4 , , 68 , , 63 , , 131 , , 46 , , 6 , , 88 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 4.5 , , 4.2 , , 8.7 , , 3.1 , , 0.4 , , 5.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" , 1996 , , 16 , , 18 , , 6 , , 0 , , 81 , , 62 , , 143 , , 41 , , 1 , , 81 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 4.5 , , 3.4 , , 7.9 , , 2.3 , , 0.1 , , 4.5 , - ! 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 ...

, , 16 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - 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 ...

, , 16 , , 13 , , 3 , , 3 , , 59 , , 26 , , 85 , , 25 , , 7 , , 121 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 4.5 , , 2.0 , , 6.5 , , 1.9 , , 0.5 , , 9.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" ,

, , 16 , , 19 , , 4 , , 4 , , 127 , , 65 , , 192 , , 63 , , 11 , , 263 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 6.7 , , 3.4 , , 10.1 , , 3.3 , , 0.6 , , 13.8 , - 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 ...

, , 16 , , 14 , , 5 , , 2 , , 69 , , 19 , , 88 , , 36 , , 13 , , 129 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 4.9 , , 1.4 , , 6.3 , , 2.6 , , 0.9 , , 9.2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2001 , , 16 , , 12 , , 8 , , 0 , , 70 , , 26 , , 96 , , 51 , , 4 , , 119 , , 0.7 , , 0.0 , , 5.8 , , 2.2 , , 8.0 , , 4.3 , , 0.3 , , 9.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2002 , , 16 , , 7 , , 4 , , 0 , , 44 , , 37 , , 81 , , 37 , , 3 , , 37 , , 0.6 , , 0.0 , , 6.3 , , 5.3 , , 11.6 , , 5.3 , , 0.4 , , 5.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2003 , , 16 , , 6 , , 1 , , 0 , , 27 , , 24 , , 51 , , 21 , , 7 , , 43 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 4.5 , , 4.0 , , 8.5 , , 3.5 , , 1.2 , , 7.2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 107 ! 37 ! 13 ! 548 ! 326 ! 874 ! 326 ! 55 ! 884 ! 0.3 ! 0.1 ! 5.1 ! 3.0 ! 8.2 ! 3.0 ! 0.5 ! 8.3

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Capuano, Mathew 1975 births Living people North Melbourne Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club premiership players St Kilda Football Club players South Fremantle Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Geelong Falcons players People from Creswick, Victoria VFL/AFL premiership players