Zachary Samuel Dawson (born 22 February 1986) 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 ...

player who played with the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club ...

and

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of ...

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 ...

. In March 2019, he was appointed as Manager of the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Mel ...

's Next Generation Academy program.

AFL career

Hawthorn

Dawson was recruited from

Calder Cannons The Calder Cannons is an Australian rules football club from Melbourne, Australia. The club competes in the NAB League, the Victorian Statewide Under-18s competition, and fields squads in the Under-15s, Under-16s and Under-18s. The club was forme ...

with pick no. 41 in the 2003 AFL Draft. Dawson's first game for Hawthorn was in 2005. He played the first eight games of 2006, until being dropped from the team, returning for four games in Rounds 15–18. The key position prospect was being groomed for the full-back role during a 12-game stint in 2006, but his confidence received a battering after

Anthony Rocca Anthony Rocca (born 15 August 1977) is a former Australian rules footballer who has played with the Sydney Swans and Collingwood in the Australian Football League. Rocca is currently serving as North Melbourne's development coach. Sydney ...

kicked eight goals on him in round two of that year. He did however, keep Geelong's

Kent Kingsley Kent Kingsley (born 26 September 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer for the North Melbourne Football Club, the Geelong Football Club and the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A full forward, Kingsley wa ...

goalless the following week. Dawson failed to play a senior game for Hawthorn in 2007 and 2008. He spent the time playing for Box Hill, on one occasion he kicked eight goals. Dawson was delisted from Hawthorn after the end of the 2008 season.

St Kilda

Dawson was drafted with pick 13 by St Kilda in the 2008 rookie draft. He was promoted to the senior team for Round 1 in 2009 due to injuries to other players and played the first 16 games in an undefeated side until being reported for rough conduct in Round 16 and suspended for two matches. Dawson played in 20 of 22 matches in the 2009 home and away rounds in which St Kilda qualified in first position for the finals, winning the club's third minor premiership. St Kilda played off in the 2009 AFL Grand Final after qualifying and preliminary finals wins. Dawson played in the grand final in which St Kilda were defeated by 12 points. Dawson played 20 games in 2010, and was named St Kilda's player of the finals series (jointly with Lenny Hayes). As of the end of the 2010 season, Dawson had played in seven finals matches including three grand finals.

Fremantle

In November 2011, Dawson left the Saints after deciding against signing a new contract with the club.Dawson turns back on Saints
Theage.com.au (11 November 2011). Retrieved 12 June 2012. He moved to

Fremantle Dockers The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of Fr ...

for the 2012 season, reuniting him with former St Kilda coach

Ross Lyon Ross Lyon (born 8 November 1966) is a former Australian rules football player and the senior coach of the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously coached St Kilda from 2007 to 2011 and the Fremantle Footbal ...

. Zac Dawson's ability to organise his teammates has been crucial in Ross Lyon's 'defensive chain' at St Kilda and now at Fremantle. In 2013 Dawson played in his 4th losing grand final as Fremantle made it to their first ever premiership decider. In 2014 Dawson's form peaked in the finals, where he was named Fremantle's Player of the Finals along with Cameron Sutcliffe. He extended his contract until the end of the 2017 season in March 2015. However he would only play five AFL games in 2015, with a series of groin injuries delaying his start to the season, and then fracturing his thumb in his first game back for Peel 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, ...

Statistics

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2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

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2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, , , , 26 , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 8 , , 12 , , 20 , , 5 , , 4 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 4.0 , , 6.0 , , 10.0 , , 2.5 , , 2.0 , , 0 , - ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , , , 26 , 12 , , 0 , , 0 , , 35 , , 68 , , 103 , , 37 , , 24 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.9 , , 5.7 , , 8.6 , , 3.1 , , 2.0 , , 0 , - ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

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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; ...

, , , , 26 , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 43 , 23 , , 2 , , 1 , , 127 , , 157 , , 284 , , 136 , , 39 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 5.5 , , 6.8 , , 12.4 , , 5.9 , , 1.7 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 6 , 20 , , 1 , , 3 , , 99 , , 122 , , 221 , , 89 , , 22 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 5.0 , , 6.1 , , 11.0 , , 4.4 , , 1.1 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 6 , 20 , , 1 , , 1 , , 61 , , 153 , , 214 , , 80 , , 25 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.0 , , 7.6 , , 10.7 , , 4.0 , , 1.2 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 3 , 18 , , 2 , , 2 , , 60 , , 107 , , 167 , , 50 , , 21 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 3.3 , , 5.9 , , 9.3 , , 2.8 , , 1.2 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 3 , 24 , , 0 , , 0 , , 60 , , 158 , , 218 , , 72 , , 40 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.5 , , 6.6 , , 9.1 , , 3.0 , , 1.7 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 3 , 22 , , 1 , , 0 , , 60 , , 162 , , 222 , , 77 , , 26 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.7 , , 7.4 , , 10.1 , , 3.5 , , 1.2 , , 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 ...

, , , , 3 , 5 , , 0 , , 0 , , 10 , , 35 , , 45 , , 13 , , 6 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.0 , , 7.0 , , 9.0 , , 2.6 , , 1.2 , , 0 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 3 , 18 , , 0 , , 0 , , 44 , , 111 , , 155 , , 52 , , 33 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.4 , , 6.2 , , 8.6 , , 2.9 , , 1.8 , , 0 , - ,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, , , , 3 , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 3 , , 5 , , 8 , , 2 , , 5 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.4 , , 6.6 , , 10.0 , , 3.7 , , 1.5 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, CareerZac Dawson's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> ! 166 !! 7 !! 7 !! 567 !! 1090 !! 1657 !! 613 !! 245 !! 0.0 !! 0.0 !! 3.4 !! 6.6 !! 10.0 !! 3.7 !! 1.5 !! 0

Honours and achievements

Team * Minor premiership ():

* Minor premiership ():

* WAFL premiership player (): 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Zac 1986 births Living people Hawthorn Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Fremantle Football Club players Calder Cannons players Doutta Stars Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Perth Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players People educated at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School