Anthony McGuinness (born 6 May 1964 in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

) is a former Australian rules football player who played for Footscray and 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). I ...

. His wife is former '' Nine News'' Adelaide presenter

Georgina McGuinness Georgina McGuinness (née Allan, formerly Thomas) is a newsreader who was the anchor of Nine News#Adelaide, ''Nine News Adelaides weekend 6pm news bulletin from 1989 to 2011. Career An Adelaide native, born 29 August 1966, she studied at Seymo ...

SANFL career

McGuinness proved his skills early in his career with leading SANFL club Glenelg, winning the

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Will ...

in 1982 at the age of 18. A dynamic and pacy left-footed rover, he featured strongly in Glenelg's 1985 premiership victory against

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. History Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colo ...

, kicking 2 goals.

VFL/AFL Career

Like his Glenelg premiership teammate Stephen Kernahan, McGuinness then accepted the invitation to play in the more lucrative

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 ...

. He was signed by Footscray and quickly justified his huge reputation. In five seasons at the Bulldogs, McGuinness missed only one game and consistently racked up many possessions, usually distributing it with precision by hand or by his trusty left foot. He stood out in an otherwise mediocre team, especially in wet weather, and won the club best and fairest award in 1987. After a particularly fine 1990 season, in which he was a key member of the Bulldogs' revival, McGuinness decided to return to

in 1991 to play with the newly formed

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...

. He was appointed the club's first vice-captain and holds the honour of both captaining The Crows in their first ever game (a pre-season trial game win over in front of over 45,000 at

Football Park Football Park, known commercially as AAMI Stadium, was an Australian rules football stadium located in West Lakes, a western suburb of Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, Australia. It was built in 1973 by the South Australian Na ...

) and of kicking the first-ever goal for Adelaide in the AFL season proper against , again at Footy Park. McGuinness was Vice-Captain of the Crows for that game with former Glenelg teammate

Chris McDermott Christopher Stephen McDermott (born 4 November 1963) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the Glenelg Football Club and North Adelaide Foot ...

taking over as captain. He would remain the Crows' vice-captain from 1991 until 1994. In

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, Adelaide made the finals for the first time, only to lose to eventual premiers Essendon in a famous Preliminary Final. Adelaide led The Bombers by 42 points at half-time but Essendon came back to win their way into the

1993 AFL Grand Final The 1993 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Essendon Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 25 September 1993. It was the 97th annual grand final of ...

against by 11 points. McGuinness had an outstanding season, racking up 657 disposals (477 kicks, 180 handballs, the highest disposal count in his 11-year AFL career), and was recognized with his third

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...

selection. After finishing 2nd in both

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

and 1992, McGuinness won the Crows Club Champion award as Adelaide's best and fairest player in 1993. He became captain for the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

and 1996 seasons but along with a number of other older and experienced players, he was delisted at end of the 1996 season by newly appointed Crows coach

Malcolm Blight Malcolm Jack Blight AM (born 16 February 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian Nati ...

, ending his AFL playing career. History shows that while Blight copped a lot of criticism for axing so many established players, Adelaide went on to win their first AFL Premiership in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

over and repeated as premiers in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

by defeating . In May 1996, Tony McGuinness and long time Glenelg, South Australian and Crows teammate

set up the McGuinness McDermott Foundation which was launched in memory of five-year-old Nicholas Berry, and seven-year-old Nathan Maclean who died of cancer. The Foundation raises funds to improve oncology treatment for South Australian children.

VFL / AFL Career Statistics Summary

: ''Statistics are correct as of the end of 2010''

Post-retirement

McGuinness returned to his original club Glenelg as a coach from 1998 to 2000, but had little success, finishing 9th, 4th, and 9th respectively. With the Tigers decimated by injuries in 1998 McGuinness came out of retirement for a game at the age of 34. Subsequently, he commenced as an assistant coach at

Port Adelaide Power Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed the Power, whilst its reserves ...

AFL side in 2005. He resigned from this position at the end of the 2006 season, citing outside business interests and wanting to spend more time with his family. McGuinness resigned from the McGuinness-McDermott Foundation on 17 August 2010. He also ran a sports retail business, Rowe and Jarman, which he sold to

Amart Sports Amart Sports (formerly Amart All Sports) was an Australian sports equipment and related apparel chain and was part of the Super Retail Group. History Amart All Sports was founded in 1976 with the first store located in Underwood, Queensland. Si ...

in 2006.

References

External links

* *
SANFL Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGuinness, Tony Australian rules footballers from Adelaide Glenelg Football Club players Western Bulldogs players South Australian State of Origin players Adelaide Football Club players Glenelg Football Club coaches Malcolm Blight Medal winners Magarey Medal winners Charles Sutton Medal winners All-Australians (1953–1988) All-Australians (AFL) South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 1964 births Living people Australia international rules football team players