Tayte Pears (born 24 March 1990) is a former professional

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 as a tall defender for the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

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). In his youth, Pears played as a forward, before shifting to the backline at the age of 16, where he spent his entire AFL career.

AFL career

Pears was drafted by with pick 23 in the 2007 national draft and debuted in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. He played the role of a key position defender in his second season, taking on big dominant forwards such as

Daniel Bradshaw Daniel Mark Bradshaw (born 21 November 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Brisbane Bears, Brisbane Lions and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Bradshaw is best known as being a dual premiership ...

Jarryd Roughead Jarryd Roughead (born 23 January 1987) is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach with the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the Hawthorn Football C ...

and

Justin Koschitzke Justin Gregory Koschitzke (born 20 September 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League. He played 200 games and kicked 247 goals for the club between 2001 and 2013 ...

. After playing on

Brendan Fevola Brendan Fevola (born 20 January 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer. He played with the Carlton and Brisbane Lions football clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). Fevola is regarded as one of the most effective ...

in round 13, 2009, he was the round nominee for the Rising Star. Off-season surgery on a foot fracture that set back his return to senior football saw Pears’ bad run with injury continue in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. He played his first game of the year against in round 13, but saw his season further stifled with injury after breaking his lower leg and then straining his hamstring in the elimination final. Injury continued to force him to sit on the sidelines in the years after, managing 23 games in the next four seasons. Then on 12 January 2016 Pears was named as one of 34 past and present Essendon players found guilty over their use of illegal supplements during the

2012 AFL season The 2012 AFL season was the 116th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

. As a result, Pears was suspended for two years, which, as a result of backdating, saw him suspended between January and November 2016, which meant he missed the entire

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured e ...

. He did not return to the AFL after his suspension, announcing his retirement from the league on 8 September 2016 to pursue a career in firefighting.

Statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

, , , , 16 , , 5 , , 2 , , 1 , , 25 , , 25 , , 50 , , 15 , , 9 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 5.0 , , 5.0 , , 10.0 , , 3.0 , , 1.8 , - ,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, , , , 16 , , 23 , , 1 , , 1 , , 156 , , 192 , , 348 , , 72 , , 47 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.8 , , 8.4 , , 15.1 , , 3.1 , , 2.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, , , , 16 , , 10 , , 0 , , 1 , , 91 , , 72 , , 163 , , 52 , , 29 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 9.1 , , 7.2 , , 16.3 , , 5.2 , , 2.9 , - ,

, , , , 16 , , 9 , , 0 , , 0 , , 54 , , 58 , , 112 , , 22 , , 24 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.0 , , 6.4 , , 12.4 , , 2.4 , , 2.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, , , , 16 , , 10 , , 0 , , 0 , , 53 , , 71 , , 124 , , 24 , , 27 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 5.3 , , 7.1 , , 12.4 , , 2.4 , , 2.7 , - ,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, , , , 16 , , 11 , , 0 , , 0 , , 111 , , 83 , , 194 , , 65 , , 26 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.1 , , 7.6 , , 17.6 , , 5.9 , , 2.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, , , , 16 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ,

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, , , , 16 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 13 , , 19 , , 32 , , 9 , , 2 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.5 , , 9.5 , , 16.0 , , 4.5 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, , , , 16 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 70 ! 3 ! 3 ! 503 ! 520 ! 1023 ! 259 ! 164 ! 0.0 ! 0.0 ! 7.2 ! 7.4 ! 14.6 ! 3.7 ! 2.3

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pears, Tayte Essendon Football Club players East Perth Football Club players 1990 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia People from Manjimup, Western Australia Doping cases in Australian rules football Bendigo Football Club players