Anthony James Polinelli (born 18 February 1943) is a former
Australian rules
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 ...
footballer who played with
Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
in the
Victorian Football League (VFL) during the early 1960s.
Football
Polinelli started his career as a rover but developed into a dashing wingman.
On 6 July 1963 he was a member of the Geelong team that were comprehensively and unexpectedly beaten
by Fitzroy, 9.13 (67) to 3.13 (31) in the
1963 Miracle Match
The 1963 Miracle Match was an Australian rules football game contested in the second half of the 1963 VFL season home-and-away competition’s round 10 "split round" matches.
The match, between the Fitzroy Football Club and the Geelong Fo ...
. He was a reserve in Geelong's
1963 premiership side and only appeared on the field briefly during the last quarter.
It is said that he had a
pipe which he would smoke during the half time of matches.
He was shortlisted for the
VFL/AFL Italian Team of the Century but didn't make the final cut.
Athletics
Geelong encouraged him to train with Arthur Edgerton, a specialist sprint coach based in Geelong. Under Edgerton's guidance Polinelli won the 1966 Bendigo Gift before finishing second to Wodonga's Bill Howard in the 1966
Stawell Gift
The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is the main event in an annual carnival held on Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, St ...
.
See also
*
1963 Miracle Match
The 1963 Miracle Match was an Australian rules football game contested in the second half of the 1963 VFL season home-and-away competition’s round 10 "split round" matches.
The match, between the Fitzroy Football Club and the Geelong Fo ...
Notes
References
Stone, Peter (1966), "League Players top Gift hopes, ''The Age'', (Saturday, 9 April 1966), p. 24.
External links
*
1943 births
Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)
Geelong Football Club players
Geelong Football Club premiership players
Maryborough Football Club players
Living people
VFL/AFL premiership players
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