Peter Neil Melesso (born 30 November 1961) 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 with

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

, St Kilda and the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL). A South Districts recruit, Melesso managed just one senior appearance for South Melbourne, which came in the final home and away round of the

1981 VFL season The 1981 VFL season was the 85th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 28 March until 26 September, and comprised a ...

. He played seven games in three seasons with St Kilda then ended up with Claremont in the WAFL, where he became a mainstay of a champion team under

Gerard Neesham Gerard Joseph Neesham (born 11 December 1954) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the East Fremantle Football Club, Swan Districts Football Club and Claremont ...

and three times produced memorable kicks to save the Tigers from defeat. The West Coast Eagles gave him another chance at VFL level when they selected him with the 108th pick of 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 ...

. Melesso, a key position player, was diagnosed with

lymphatic cancer Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...

during the 1990 season and didn't play for the club again. In 2005, Melesso was called up as a witness in the

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

trial of Melbourne bouncer Zdravko Micevic. Melesso had been working in the

bottle shop A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence (i ...

of the Beaconsfield Hotel in St Kilda where Micevic was accused of an assault which resulted in the death of cricketer

David Hookes David William Hookes (3 May 1955 – 19 January 2004) grew up in Torrensville and was a South Australian and Australian cricketer, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in ...

.''The Age''
"Final witnesses heard in Hookes case"
1 September 2005, Jesse Hogan

Notes

He kicked behinds after the siren to draw with Subiaco in 1987 and with

Swan Districts The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb ...

in 1988 plus a goal after the siren to beat South Fremantle in 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melesso, Peter 1961 births Sydney Swans players St Kilda Football Club players West Coast Eagles players Claremont Football Club players Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)