Phil Cronan (born 17 July 1959) 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 St Kilda and Footscray in the

Victorian Football League 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 ...

(VFL) in between 1984 and 1988. He first played for South Fremantle 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) between 1979 and 1982, including in South's

1980 WAFL Grand Final The 1980 WAFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the South Fremantle Football Club and the Swan Districts Football Club, on 27 September 1980 at Subiaco Oval, to determine the premier team of the West Australian F ...

winning side. In December 1982 he announced that he wanted to leave South Fremantle and join

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 ...

. However on 11 January 1983 he signed to play for West Perth. He played in all 21 WAFL games and in West Perth's loss to

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

in the 1983 Sterling Cup national competition. When Cronan moved to play for St Kilda in 1984, West Perth, Swan Districts and the WAFL applied to the

Supreme Court of Victoria The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state. The Supreme Court comprises ...

for an injunction to prevent him and fellow West Australian

Phil Narkle Phillip Michael Narkle (born 29 January 1961) is a former Australian rules football player of Indigenous Australian descent who played for and in the Australian Football League (AFL) and Swan Districts Football Club in the West Australian Foo ...

from playing in the VFL. The Western Australian clubs claimed that the players were still contracted to their WAFL clubs and should not be cleared to play in the VFL. The judge, Justice Kaye, refused to hear the applications to issue an injunction, due to the expected seven-day duration of the applications. He also questioned the importance of the case in relation to other cases, stating "It seems to me that football cases should not be heard in this court" and "there are other matters ... which are more important than football". Both Cronan and Narkle continued to play for St Kilda. On 19 April 1984, the VFL and WAFL agreed on a new clearance system to avoid future legal challenges. After being delisted by Footscray, Cronan moved to South Australia where he played for Woodville in 1989. He then returned to Western Australia where he played for South Fremantle for two more seasons before retiring. Cronan played in eight state games for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. He later turned to coaching, leading

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 1997. He has also coached junior teams, including the South Fremantle colts (Under 19) team in 1998 and the Western Australian State Under 18s team in 2002. From 2011 to 2012 he was the coach of the

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 ...

colts team.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cronan, Phil Living people 1959 births South Fremantle Football Club players West Perth Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Western Bulldogs players Woodville Football Club players Swan Districts Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Western Australian State of Origin players