Paul Harding (born 4 June 1964) is a former

Australian rules 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 ...

footballer who played with

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

, St. Kilda and

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

VFL/AFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

. Paul was a great player for

East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

, with whom he began during a bleak period in 1981 and rose startlingly to play for his state in 1983 almost on his nineteenth birthday, and is also remembered at many junior clubs. Harding usually played as a ruckman and was a member of the West Australian interstate team which won the national title in the season of his interstate debut. He was recruited from East Fremantle to Hawthorn for the

1987 VFL season File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

but struggled to make the side regularly due to injuries. Alongside

Peter Russo Peter Russo (born 29 October 1959) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1980s. After a 1988 season where he played only eight senior games, Russo, alongside Paul ...

and Robert Handley, Harding was traded to St. Kilda in exchange for the first choice in the

1988 VFL Draft The 1988 VFL draft, held on the 9th of November 1988, was the third annual national draft held by the VFL/AFL, Victorian Football League (now known as the Australian Football League). It consisted of a pre-season draft and a national draft. In 1 ...

. Harding would played 62 games for the Saints over three seasons. He continued to represent Western Australia and in 1991 won a

Simpson Medal The Simpson Medal is an individual prize awarded for Australian rules football in Western Australia. The medal has been donated by Dr Fred Simpson and family since 1945. Simpson Medals are currently awarded to the following players: *The best pla ...

for his performance against the Victorians. West Coast acquired the services of Harding in 1992, and he played in their inaugural

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 ...

winning side that year. After leaving West Coast, he finished his career at East Fremantle, finishing with 136 premiership games for the club, including premierships in 1985 and 1994, and a total of 252 premiership games in elite Australian rules football. After retiring as a footballer, he worked at the Fremantle Dockers. When

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 ...

first came to Western Australia, he lived with Paul Harding and his family. Pavlich lived there for a while before buying his own property. Paul Harding is now a

dental technician A dental technologist (dental laboratory technician) is a member of the dental team who, upon prescription from a dental clinician, constructs custom-made restorative and dental appliances. There are four major disciplines within dental technol ...

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(archived) 1964 births Living people Hawthorn Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players West Coast Eagles players West Coast Eagles Premiership players East Fremantle Football Club players VFL/AFL players born in England Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Western Australian State of Origin players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players {{AFL-bio-1960s-stub