Nigel Lappin (born 21 June 1976) is a former professional Australian rules footballer. Lappin is currently serving as an assistant coach with the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 2 ...

Playing career

Lappin was born in the locally based regional hospital at Corowa, New South Wales and grew up in Chiltern, Victoria. He was drafted to play for the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL ...

in the Australian Football League in 1993, playing his first AFL game the following year. In 1997 he was a member of the inaugural

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football in Australia, 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 t ...

team following the Bears merger with Fitzroy. A long, accurate kick, capable of running as a play maker throughout the whole match, he was recognised as a member of the group of players known as the "Fab Four", a group of highly skilled

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

players considered to be one of the major driving forces behind the Lions successive Australian Football League premierships in 2001, 2002 and 2003. An example of his courage was the 2003

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 ...

win, in which he played the whole match with a broken rib. Lappin represented Australia in International Rules in 2001. In 2004 he achieved a personal milestone in winning his first Merrett-Murray Medal. However his 2005 season ended prematurely when he broke his right ankle late in the season. Weeks into his comeback, the ankle was re-injured in a 2006 pre-season practice match, forcing him to miss the entire 2006 season. Following the retirement of longtime

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Michael Voss Michael Voss (born 7 July 1975) is a former professional Australian rules football player with the Brisbane Bears/Lions and current senior coach of the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Voss was a triple premier ...

at the end of 2006, Lappin was appointed co-captain of the club alongside Simon Black, Luke Power, Jonathan Brown, and Chris Johnson on 20 March 2007. His cousin Matthew Lappin also played AFL football for Carlton and St. Kilda.

Retirement

On 19 August 2008, Nigel Lappin announced his retirement from professional football. After only being able to play 4 games in the 2008 season due to an

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 calcane ...

problem, Nigel decided it was time to draw a close on his career. "I'm really disappointed this season hasn't worked out for me," Lappin said at a Gabba press conference. "Every footballer wants the fairytale ending. It's hard to walk away from something that's been a really big part of your life, but I've got a family that will care for me." He was the last remaining member of the Brisbane Lions inaugural Round 1, 1997 team. In October 2008, Lappin joined the

as an assistant coach. In 2016 he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Statistics

:Nigel Lappin's player profile at AFL Tables
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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 Ma ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 17 , , 8 , , 3 , , 115 , , 82 , , 197 , , 37 , , 11 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 6.8 , , 4.8 , , 11.6 , , 2.2 , , 0.6 , - ! 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 strike ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 19 , , 17 , , 18 , , 179 , , 80 , , 259 , , 56 , , 14 , , 0.9 , , 0.9 , , 9.4 , , 4.2 , , 13.6 , , 2.9 , , 0.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 25 , , 15 , , 15 , , 376 , , 126 , , 502 , , 118 , , 16 , , 0.6 , , 0.6 , , 15.0 , , 5.0 , , 20.1 , , 4.7 , , 0.6 , - ! 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 21 , , 10 , , 14 , , 281 , , 119 , , 400 , , 107 , , 17 , , 0.5 , , 0.7 , , 13.4 , , 5.7 , , 19.0 , , 5.1 , , 0.8 , - 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 20 , , 15 , , 12 , , 269 , , 130 , , 399 , , 96 , , 15 , , 0.8 , , 0.6 , , 13.5 , , 6.5 , , 20.0 , , 4.8 , , 0.8 , - ! 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 s ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 25 , , 23 , , 23 , , 281 , , 185 , , 466 , , 109 , , 29 , , 0.9 , , 0.9 , , 11.2 , , 7.4 , , 18.6 , , 4.4 , , 1.2 , - 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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 24 , , 16 , , 12 , , 337 , , 179 , , 516 , , 107 , , 33 , , 0.7 , , 0.5 , , 14.0 , , 7.5 , , 21.5 , , 4.5 , , 1.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" ,

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

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 25 , , 26 , , 19 , , 383 , , 232 , , 615 , , 157 , , 50 , , 1.0 , , 0.8 , , 15.3 , , 9.3 , , 24.6 , , 6.3 , , 2.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! 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 independence from Indonesia and ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 18 , , 7 , , 12 , , 275 , , 167 , , 442 , , 92 , , 74 , , 0.4 , , 0.7 , , 15.3 , , 9.3 , , 24.6 , , 5.1 , , 4.1 , - ! 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 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 22 , , 8 , , 15 , , 371 , , 191 , , 562 , , 124 , , 70 , , 0.4 , , 0.7 , , 16.9 , , 8.7 , , 25.5 , , 5.6 , , 3.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 60 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 25 , , 17 , , 17 , , 379 , , 251 , , 630 , , 115 , , 121 , , 0.7 , , 0.7 , , 15.2 , , 10.0 , , 25.2 , , 4.6 , , 4.8 , - ! 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 (dwarf planet), Er ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 16 , , 8 , , 5 , , 220 , , 147 , , 367 , , 76 , , 49 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 13.8 , , 9.2 , , 22.9 , , 4.8 , , 3.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2006 , style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 Benazir Bhutto ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 18 , , 4 , , 6 , , 257 , , 225 , , 482 , , 85 , , 75 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 14.3 , , 12.5 , , 26.8 , , 4.7 , , 4.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 44 , , 4 , , 0 , , 2 , , 35 , , 39 , , 74 , , 14 , , 22 , , 0.0 , , 0.5 , , 8.8 , , 9.8 , , 18.5 , , 3.5 , , 5.5 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 279 ! 174 ! 173 ! 3758 ! 2153 ! 5911 ! 1293 ! 596 ! 0.6 ! 0.6 ! 13.5 ! 7.7 ! 21.2 ! 4.6 ! 2.1

Career highlights

Teal Cup *Victorian & All-Australian U15 Schoolboys 1991 *Victorian Country & All-Australian Teal Cup (U17) 1993 *Winner Chiltern Best & Fairest 1993 Brisbane Bears/Lions *Best & Fairest 2004 *Victorian State of Origin 1996, 1997, 1999 *First Brisbane-based AFL player to win Victorian State of Origin Selection *Member Bears First Finals Side 1995 *Member Lions First Finals Side 1997 *

Ansett Cup In the Australian Football League (AFL), previously the Victorian Football League (VFL), the pre-season competition, known during its history by a variety of sponsored names and most recently as the NAB Cup, was an annual Australian rules foot ...

Grand Final Side 2001 *

captain 2007 *Australian Asthma Sportsman of the Year 1998 *

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 * International Rules 2001, *Premiership Player 2001, 2002, 2003

References

External links

Butcher's boy to champion
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lappin, Nigel 1976 births Australian rules footballers from New South Wales Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Brisbane Bears players Brisbane Lions players Brisbane Lions Premiership players Brisbane Lions captains All-Australians (AFL) Victorian State of Origin players Merrett–Murray Medal winners Living people Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australia international rules football team players Three-time VFL/AFL Premiership players