Michael Apeness (born 28 January 1995) is a former

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 the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of ...

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). He mainly played as a key position forward or ruckman. Retrieved 5 July 2014.

Early life

Apeness was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, but moved to Melbourne when he was 7 years old. He attended Donvale Christian College all the way until Year 12. He played for the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

, but at age 16 decided to play

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. He was selected to play in a

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

development squad, but after tearing the

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

in his knee, and despite the Rebels assisting in his rehabilitation he decided to switch back to play Australian football. He represented Victoria Metro at the 2013 AFL Under 18 Championships and played in a TAC Cup premiership with Eastern Ranges. He was selected with the 17th pick at the 2013 national draft by Fremantle. Apeness started the 2014 season playing for Fremantle's affiliate team,

Peel Thunder The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. 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, ...

(WAFL).

AFL career

Apeness made his AFL debut in Round 16, 2014 against

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

TIO Stadium Marrara Oval, currently branded TIO Stadium under a naming rights agreement (and previously also known as Football Park), is a sports ground in Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory. The ground primarily hosts Australian rules ...

in Darwin, as a late replacement for

Matthew Pavlich Matthew Pavlich (born 31 December 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A versatile player, Pavlich is widely regarded as one of the premi ...

, who was ill. He played the following week before being dropped back to Peel for the remainder of the season. In 2015, Apeness started the season playing for Peel, but injured his

posterior cruciate ligament The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is a ligament in each knee of humans and various other animals. It works as a counterpart to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It connects the posterior intercondylar area of the tibia to the medial cond ...

(PCL) in his left knee and missed the remainder of the season. He returned from injury with Peel midway through the 2016 season and was recalled to Fremantle's team for the last four matches of the season. He was a member of Peel's inaugural WAFL premiership in 2016. Another knee injury during the 2017 pre-season prevented Apeness from playing early in the year. During his first game back from injury with the Peel reserves, he injured the PCL in his right knee, causing him to again miss the remainder of the season. In 2018 Apeness played the opening six matches of the season for Peel, before being recalled to replace an injured Aaron Sandilands in round 11. He played five consecutive games, before being dropped back to Peel. The week after signing a contract extension, he badly injured his

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupeds, ...

tendon, ruling him out for the remainder of the season for the third time in his career. At the end of the 2018 season, Apeness was delisted, with the commitment by Fremantle to re-draft him in the rookie draft, however Apeness instead announced his retirement from the AFL.

References

External links

* *
WAFL playing statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apeness, Michael 1995 births Living people Fremantle Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players Eastern Ranges players Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia