Michael Robert Wilson (born 21 November 1976) is a former professional

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 ...

er who played for

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed ...

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) and the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

(SANFL)

AFL career

Success (1997–2006)

Affectionately known as 'Wilbur', Wilson was one of the talented crop of youngsters making the transition from the SANFL to the national league as part of

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

's inaugural AFL squad in

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 t ...

. Playing primarily as an onballer Wilson immediately made an impression and took out the 1997

AFL Rising Star 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 Buc ...

award as the league's best young prospect in his debut season. From

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 ...

onward, Wilson played primarily as a medium-sized defender rotating through the midfield on occasion. With a pair of SANFL premiership medallions already in his keeping by age 19, Wilson was able to add the AFL equivalent in

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 6 ...

, capping a brilliant individual season with a sturdy performance in Port Adelaide's first AFL flag win over the thrice reigning premiers, the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional 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 the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

. His high level of play was all the more remarkable given he had required a double shoulder reconstruction for some time.

Injury and retirement (2007–2008)

With a tremendous work ethic and a fearless disposition on the field, Wilson overcame both his shoulder problems and other serious injuries including two knee reconstructions to remain a vital part of the Power lineup a decade on. In

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 of Pakistan, Pr ...

Wilson snapped his

achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

in Port's win over

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

in the Preliminary Final and missed the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

against

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

. Wilson announced his retirement from AFL football on 5 August

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; ...

Playing statistics

:Michael Wilson's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 22 , , 13 , , 11 , , 270 , , 149 , , 419 , , 58 , , 37 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 12.3 , , 6.8 , , 19.0 , , 2.6 , , 1.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 21 , , 8 , , 5 , , 221 , , 120 , , 341 , , 68 , , 39 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 10.5 , , 5.7 , , 16.2 , , 3.2 , , 1.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 23 , , 3 , , 4 , , 191 , , 101 , , 292 , , 63 , , 26 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 8.3 , , 4.4 , , 12.7 , , 2.7 , , 1.1 , - ! 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;", , 15 , , 21 , , 6 , , 2 , , 198 , , 88 , , 286 , , 47 , , 38 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 9.4 , , 4.2 , , 13.6 , , 2.2 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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

, style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 11 , , 3 , , 1 , , 91 , , 61 , , 152 , , 28 , , 20 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 8.3 , , 5.5 , , 13.8 , , 2.5 , , 1.8 , - ! 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 East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 15 , , 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 disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 15 , , 2 , , 1 , , 104 , , 60 , , 164 , , 54 , , 31 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 6.9 , , 4.0 , , 10.9 , , 3.6 , , 2.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 23 , , 9 , , 8 , , 228 , , 167 , , 395 , , 93 , , 62 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 9.9 , , 7.3 , , 17.2 , , 4.0 , , 2.7 , - style="background-color: #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 was discovered in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 16 , , 0 , , 2 , , 142 , , 89 , , 231 , , 65 , , 41 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 8.9 , , 5.6 , , 14.4 , , 4.1 , , 2.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 16 , , 3 , , 4 , , 120 , , 80 , , 200 , , 68 , , 33 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 7.5 , , 5.0 , , 12.5 , , 4.3 , , 2.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 19 , , 4 , , 1 , , 161 , , 121 , , 282 , , 83 , , 42 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 8.5 , , 6.4 , , 14.8 , , 4.4 , , 2.2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 21 , , 5 , , 0 , , 0 , , 37 , , 22 , , 59 , , 13 , , 8 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 7.4 , , 4.4 , , 11.8 , , 2.6 , , 1.6 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 192 ! 51 ! 39 ! 1763 ! 1058 ! 2821 ! 640 ! 377 ! 0.3 ! 0.2 ! 9.2 ! 5.5 ! 14.7 ! 3.3 ! 2.0

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Michael 1976 births Living people Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) players Port Adelaide Magpies players Port Adelaide Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club Premiership players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) AFL Rising Star winners South Australian State of Origin players Australian rules footballers from South Australia One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players