Seamus McNamara (born June 2, 1985) is an American-born 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 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), and former professional basketball player.
McNamara signed a two-year international rookie contract and was selected by the
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...
in the 2009 AFL rookie draft at pick 47.
Collingwood discovered McNamara, who played four seasons of
NCAA Division I collegiate basketball in the US for
Marist College in New York before playing one season of professional basketball in Germany for
TSV Dachau Spurs.
When Collingwood gave out their jumper numbers for the 2010 season, McNamara requested the recently vacated number 23 (formerly worn by
Anthony Rocca). Instead, McNamara was given the number 50 after Collingwood wished to keep the number 23 vacant after Rocca's departure. McNamara later said his number 50 could represent the 50 states of the United States.
On March 13, 2010, McNamara played in his first competitive match against an opposition team (a 61-point win over in a
VFL
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 ...
pre-season game).
McNamara is the fifth player to be born in the United States to be associated with an AFL club and the first American-born player to play for Collingwood.
McNamara excited by future
In September 2012, McNamara was delisted by Collingwood after having played three NAB pre-season cup matches for the club. After being delisted from Collingwood McNamara returned to his original sport, signing on to play with the Sandringham Sabres
Sandringham Sabres is a NBL1 South club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is a division of Southern Basketball Association (SBA), the major administrative basketball organisati ...
in the South East Australian Basketball League. In 2012, McNamara was delisted from the Sandringham Sabres.
See also
*Australian rules football in the United States
Australian rules football in the United States (most commonly referred to simply as "Footy" but sometimes "Aussie Rules" or AFL) is a team and spectator sport which has grown rapidly since the late 1990s.
It was originally introduced to the Unit ...
*VFL/AFL players with international backgrounds
This is a list of Australian Football League players who have multicultural ancestry (which includes players born overseas or who had one parent born overseas).
In 2020, about 15 per cent of AFL players were born overseas or had one parent bo ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McNamara, Seamus
1985 births
Living people
Marist Red Foxes men's basketball players
American players of Australian rules football
American men's basketball players