David Rodan (born 8 October 1983) is an

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 ...

goal umpire and a retired professional footballer who played for the

Richmond Tigers The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

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

and the Melbourne Demons. Of Tongan heritage, Rodan is the first Fijian-born player to reach 100 AFL games. He is currently an AFL goal umpire.

Early life

David Rodan was born in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

to mother Amelia and father David Snr, both of

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

n heritage. He spent his first year in the town of Lami near

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...

. When he was three years old, his family moved to Australia. His father wanted him to play

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

, but there were no rugby clubs for juniors in his area. Instead, he tried Aussie Rules, beginning junior football with Oak Park and the Holy Child Football Club in

Broadmeadows Broadmeadows is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Hume Local government areas of Victoria, local ...

, and he developed a passion for the sport. Rodan rose through the junior ranks until dominating in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

competition, winning back to back

Morrish Medal The Morrish Medal is an Australian rules football award. Formerly awarded to the best and fairest player in the VFL Under-19 competition (known as the Thirds prior to 1959), since 1992 the award has been given to the best player in the Victori ...

s (2000 and 2001).

AFL career

Richmond (2001 - 2006)

Rodan was recruited by

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

club

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

at the end of 2001 at pick 33. He played every game for two years (from his debut in 2002), and was nominated for the

AFL Rising Star award The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan ...

in his debut season and kicked 17 goals of which three were nominated for the Goal of the Year award. Playing for Richmond, he played as a small crumbing forward along with

Andrew Krakouer Andrew James Krakouer (born 4 February 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Krakouer is the son of Jim Krakou ...

in the early part of his career. He became an

Australian citizen Australian nationality law details the conditions in which a person holds Australian legal nationality. The primary law governing nationality regulations is the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, which came into force on 1 July 2007 and is applic ...

in September 2002 in order to get a passport to travel to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England to participate in an

Australian Football Exhibition Match Exhibition matches in Australian rules football have been used to promote the game as a demonstration sport outside of its heartlands in Australia. Since its Victorian origin in 1859, the sport's beginnings in other states and territories (the ...

against Essendon as his Fijian passport had expired. After the retirement of

Matthew Knights Matthew Knights (born 5 October 1970) is an Australian rules football coach and former player who is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Geelong Football Club. Knights played in the midfield for the Richmond Football Club from ...

, Rodan shifted into the midfield. He did not participate in the 2005 regular season due to a severe knee injury. Rodan made a return to league football in 2006, but was delisted at the end of the season, first hearing of his sacking at the club's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

function via an impromptu speech from captain

Kane Johnson Kane "Sugar" Johnson (born 15 March 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer and former captain of the Richmond Football Club and dual premiership winner with the Adelaide Crows in the Australian Football League (AFL). Career He began ...

Port Adelaide (2007 - 2012)

Rodan was given a career lifeline when he was drafted by

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

with the final selection of the

2006 AFL draft The 2006 AFL draft is a recent national draft of the Australian Football League. The AFL draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Foot ...

. Rodan did not miss a game in the 2007 season, which meant he played in the

2007 AFL Grand Final The 2007 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and the Port Adelaide Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 29 September 2007. It was the 111th annual ...

. He received six

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

votes at the 2007 medal count including a best on ground 3 votes for his round 12 performance, putting him in the top 60 players in the competition. Rodan ruptured an

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

in a training injury in December 2009 and was expected to miss the entire 2010 season. However, following ligament augmentation and reconstruction surgery, which replaced the torn ligament with one made of

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natural ...

fibres, Rodan was able to play in round six, 2010.

Melbourne (2013)

Rodan was traded to the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

on 25 October 2012. Port Adelaide had initially stated that he had been delisted, but had not formally lodged the paperwork with the AFL allowing a trade to be made between Port Adelaide and Melbourne. He was traded for Pick no. 88 in the

2012 AFL Draft The 2012 AFL draft consisted of five opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2012/13 Australian Football League off-season. These were: *2012 AFL trade week, trade period; which was held between 1 October and 26 October, and for the fir ...

. Rodan announced hi
retirement
after he ruptured his

again in Round 22 against the Adelaide Crows. Rodan won the fourteenth season of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''.

West Preston- Lakeside (2015)

Rodan teamed up with the Northern Football League team West Preston Lakeside for a two-year period in 2015 and played a total of 16 games.

VFL Goal Umpiring (2016)

In March 2016, Rodan began training as a VFL goal umpire with his intention to become an AFL-listed goal umpire by 2017. This training opportunity presented itself through the Scanlon Foundation's assistance to introduce people of more indigenous and multicultural backgrounds to Australian rules umpiring. He did so and as of the end of 2022, he has goal umpired 73 AFL matches.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodan, David 1983 births Fijian emigrants to Australia Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Australian people of I-Taukei Fijian descent Fijian people of Tongan descent Living people Port Adelaide Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) Richmond Football Club players VFL/AFL players born in Fiji Naturalised citizens of Australia Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Calder Cannons players Melbourne Football Club players Dancing with the Stars (Australian TV series) winners Casey Demons players Australia international rules football team players Australian Football League umpires