Paul Dear (28 December 1966 – 8 July 2022) was 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 ...

er who played for the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

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). Younger brother of fellow Hawk ruckman

Greg Dear Greg Dear (born 17 April 1963) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Hawthorn and Richmond in the VFL/AFL. A ruckman, Dear was a member of the strong Hawthorn sides of the late 1980s and a premiership player in 1986, 19 ...

, Paul was the smaller of the two; Greg stood at 199 cm to Paul's 188cm. Though giving away inches to taller opponents, Paul would occasionally be the secondary ruckman for the team. The Dear brothers were recruited when the

Latrobe Valley The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nes ...

was in the zone. A half-forward, Dear made his debut in 1987 and played in that year's

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. S ...

. He filled in for the unavailable

Jason Dunstall Jason Hadfield Dunstall (born 14 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Dunstall is arguably the greatest Australian rules footballer to come from ...

at full-forward but ended up on the losing side. Unable to break into the side during back-to-back premiership years of 1988 and 1989, Dear was consistently named as an emergency. In

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, he got regular games, playing 23 games for the year, and his form continued into 1991. He helped Hawthorn defeat

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

in the 1991 Grand Final with two goals and won the

Norm Smith Medal The Norm Smith Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to 1990 the competition was known as the Victorian Football ...

. Dear almost single-handedly turned a nine-point deficit into a ten-point half-time lead by dominating across the Hawthorn half-forward line and setting up several goals. In 2020, Dear was diagnosed with untreatable

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

. In 2021, Dear appeared on the AFL-centred TV show ''

The Front Bar ''The Front Bar'' (formerly ''Friday Front Bar'') is an Australian Football League-based talk show that airs on the Seven Network. The show is hosted by journalist Andy Maher and comedians Mick Molloy and Sam Pang. Hosts * Regular ** Andy ...

'' to promote the charity. He died in July 2022, just one week before Hawthorn was to play in the "Dare to Hope" match to raise money fo
Pancare
a charity that Dear supported until his death. A documentary, entitled ''Dare to Hope'', is set for release in late 2022.

Statistics

: , - style=background:#EAEAEA , scope=row , 1987 , , , , 13 , 9 , , 1 , , 4 , , 34 , , 52 , , 86 , , 21 , , 13 , , 0.1 , , 0.4 , , 3.8 , , 5.8 , , 9.6 , , 2.3 , , 1.4 , , 0 , - , scope=row , 1988 , , , , 13 , 0 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , - style=background:#EAEAEA , scope=row , 1989 , , , , 13 , 5 , , 1 , , 0 , , 30 , , 25 , , 55 , , 16 , , 5 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 6.0 , , 5.0 , , 11.0 , , 3.2 , , 1.0 , , 0 , - , scope=row ,

, , , , 13 , 23 , , 32 , , 13 , , 199 , , 172 , , 371 , , 102 , , 48 , , 1.4 , , 0.6 , , 8.7 , , 7.5 , , 16.1 , , 4.4 , , 2.1 , , 3 , - style=background:#EAEAEA , scope=row bgcolor=F0E68C , 1991^# , , , , 13 , 23 , , 23 , , 22 , , 188 , , 151 , , 339 , , 88 , , 31 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , 8.2 , , 6.6 , , 14.7 , , 3.8 , , 1.3 , , 0 , - , scope=row , 1992 , , , , 13 , 13 , , 4 , , 4 , , 100 , , 81 , , 181 , , 37 , , 20 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 7.7 , , 6.2 , , 13.9 , , 2.8 , , 1.5 , , 0 , - style=background:#EAEAEA , scope=row , 1993 , , , , 13 , 14 , , 4 , , 6 , , 79 , , 81 , , 160 , , 43 , , 23 , , 0.3 , , 0.4 , , 5.6 , , 5.8 , , 11.4 , , 3.1 , , 3.1 , , 0 , - , scope=row , 1994 , , , , 13 , 19 , , 10 , , 4 , , 121 , , 115 , , 236 , , 58 , , 42 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 6.4 , , 6.1 , , 12.4 , , 3.1 , , 2.2 , , 0 , - style=background:#EAEAEA , scope=row , 1995 , , , , 13 , 15 , , 5 , , 6 , , 79 , , 79 , , 158 , , 46 , , 14 , , 0.3 , , 0.4 , , 5.3 , , 5.3 , , 10.5 , , 3.1 , , 0.9 , , 2 , - , scope=row , 1996 , , , , 13 , 2 , , 0 , , 1 , , 4 , , 5 , , 9 , , 2 , , 1 , , 0.0 , , 0.5 , , 2.0 , , 2.5 , , 4.5 , , 1.0 , , 0.5 , , 0 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 123 !! 80 !! 60 !! 834 !! 761 !! 1595 !! 413 !! 197 !! 0.7 !! 0.5 !! 6.8 !! 6.2 !! 13.0 !! 3.4 !! 1.6 !! 5

Honours and achievements

Team * AFL premiership player (): 1991 Individual *

: 1991 *

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Ov ...

( Victoria 2nd XVIII team): 1990

References

External links

* *
Profile at Hawksheadquarters.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dear, Paul 1966 births 2022 deaths Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Deaths from pancreatic cancer Deaths from cancer in Victoria (Australia) Hawthorn Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club Premiership players Norm Smith Medal winners Victorian State of Origin players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players