Dustin Fletcher (born 7 May 1975) 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 his entire 23-season career 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 sports, 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 ...

(AFL). He is widely acknowledged as one of the finest defenders in the history of the league.

AFL career

Fletcher was recruited by the

in the 1992 National Draft. He played his first senior game against Carlton in his senior year of high school at

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Penleigh: la, Ad Altiora , motto_translation = Essendon: Strength through knowledge;Penleigh: To higher things , location = Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Keilor Park & Keilor East, Victoria , country = Aust ...

. He was a key member of the 1993 premiership team in his first AFL season, a team which is often referred to as the " Baby Bombers". Fletcher also played in the 2000 premiership team, a year in which he also won the

Crichton Medal The Crichton Medal is the name given to the best and fairest award for the Australian rules football team the Essendon Football Club. The naming of the award is in honour of Wally Crichton, a former administrator for Essendon (who was a committ ...

as Essendon's best and fairest and was selected in the

All-Australian team 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 ...

Noted for his longevity in the game, Fletcher played a total of 400 senior VFL/AFL games, which stands as the fifth-highest number of games by any player as of 2021. His AFL career length of 22 years and 58 days is an all-time league record (edging out Vic Cumberland, whose former record was 5 days shy of 22 years). Fletcher played his 400th game in Round 9, 2015, becoming the third player in VFL/AFL history to reach the milestone (after Michael Tuck and Kevin Bartlett); it would end up being his final game, as he was unable to recover from a groin injury sustained during the match. He holds the outright Essendon games record, having overtaken the previous record of 378 games held by Simon Madden in Round 1,

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 wa ...

. He is the second-oldest player to play a VFL/AFL game, aged 40 years and 23 days at the time of his final game, behind only the aforementioned Vic Cumberland (who played the 1920 season at the age of 43). With his father,

Ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

, the Fletchers hold the record for the most VFL/AFL career games played by a father and son, with 664 games between them. On 12 January 2016, during the summer after his retirement, Fletcher 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, Fletcher was suspended from playing at all levels for 24 months, which with backdating and provisional suspension served resulted in suspension until November 2016. However, Fletcher had already retired the previous year, so the suspension was moot. After serving his suspension, Fletcher returned in 2017 to play suburban football for Essendon Doutta Stars.

Kicking style

Fletcher's execution of the

torpedo punt A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

was often used as a set-play clearing strategy by coach Kevin Sheedy. In a game in 2007, he kicked a torpedo punt goal from more than 70 metres. According to ''The Sunday Age'', it was the fifth-longest kick in the history of the VFL/AFL.

International rules series

Fletcher served as the Australia international rules football team's goalkeeper for five series: the 2005 series, the 2006 series, the 2010 series, the 2014 series, and the 2015 series. Along with

Barry Hall Barry Hall (born 8 February 1977) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club, Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is considered to be one of the be ...

, Fletcher was one of Australia's co-captains for the 2006 series. He is regarded as Australia's greatest keeper throughout the series. He retired from top-level football with a final International Rules match, at the 2015 series in Ireland.

Personal life

Dustin's son Mason is the punter for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

. In Mason's freshman (first) season in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, the Bearcats became the first-ever team from a Group of Five conference to reach the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

. Mason's sophomore season in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, the Bearcats' last before joining the

Power Five The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiat ...

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

, saw him named the special teams player of the year in the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

Statistics

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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 ...

† , style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 17 , , 0 , , 0 , , 128 , , 45 , , 173 , , 43 , , 24 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 7.5 , , 2.6 , , 10.2 , , 2.5 , , 1.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 13 , , 2 , , 0 , , 76 , , 41 , , 117 , , 27 , , 10 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 5.8 , , 3.2 , , 9.0 , , 2.1 , , 0.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 22 , , 4 , , 3 , , 199 , , 101 , , 300 , , 94 , , 23 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 9.0 , , 4.6 , , 13.6 , , 4.3 , , 1.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 23 , , 16 , , 10 , , 235 , , 52 , , 287 , , 105 , , 16 , , 0.7 , , 0.4 , , 10.2 , , 2.3 , , 12.5 , , 4.6 , , 0.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 16 , , 9 , , 2 , , 175 , , 62 , , 237 , , 76 , , 14 , , 0.6 , , 0.1 , , 10.9 , , 3.9 , , 14.8 , , 4.8 , , 0.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 18 , , 4 , , 2 , , 186 , , 39 , , 225 , , 57 , , 16 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 10.3 , , 2.2 , , 12.5 , , 3.2 , , 0.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 19 , , 3 , , 8 , , 198 , , 51 , , 249 , , 74 , , 18 , , 0.2 , , 0.4 , , 10.4 , , 2.7 , , 13.1 , , 3.9 , , 1.0 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

† , style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 23 , , 14 , , 6 , , 276 , , 81 , , 357 , , 93 , , 26 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 12.0 , , 3.5 , , 15.5 , , 4.0 , , 1.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 21 , , 4 , , 4 , , 239 , , 62 , , 301 , , 78 , , 18 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 11.4 , , 3.0 , , 14.3 , , 3.7 , , 0.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 18 , , 3 , , 2 , , 202 , , 44 , , 246 , , 51 , , 30 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 11.2 , , 2.4 , , 13.7 , , 2.8 , , 1.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 14 , , 0 , , 0 , , 145 , , 34 , , 179 , , 44 , , 14 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.4 , , 2.4 , , 12.8 , , 3.1 , , 1.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 20 , , 1 , , 3 , , 220 , , 42 , , 262 , , 70 , , 28 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 11.0 , , 2.1 , , 13.1 , , 3.5 , , 1.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 discover ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 17 , , 0 , , 0 , , 226 , , 37 , , 263 , , 70 , , 13 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 13.3 , , 2.2 , , 15.5 , , 4.1 , , 0.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 16 , , 0 , , 0 , , 211 , , 67 , , 278 , , 98 , , 12 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 13.2 , , 4.2 , , 17.4 , , 6.1 , , 0.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 19 , , 3 , , 2 , , 309 , , 85 , , 394 , , 144 , , 30 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 16.3 , , 4.5 , , 20.7 , , 7.6 , , 1.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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; ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 18 , , 2 , , 3 , , 198 , , 84 , , 282 , , 96 , , 18 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 11.0 , , 4.7 , , 15.7 , , 5.3 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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; Protests ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 18 , , 1 , , 1 , , 218 , , 102 , , 320 , , 86 , , 30 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 12.1 , , 5.7 , , 17.8 , , 4.8 , , 1.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 16 , , 1 , , 1 , , 216 , , 75 , , 291 , , 79 , , 28 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 13.5 , , 4.7 , , 18.2 , , 4.9 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 celebrates ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 19 , , 1 , , 0 , , 213 , , 76 , , 289 , , 77 , , 32 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 11.2 , , 4.0 , , 15.2 , , 4.0 , , 1.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 gat ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 18 , , 1 , , 2 , , 244 , , 45 , , 289 , , 88 , , 20 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 13.6 , , 2.5 , , 16.1 , , 4.9 , , 1.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 fa ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 13 , , 0 , , 0 , , 151 , , 47 , , 198 , , 63 , , 14 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 11.6 , , 3.6 , , 15.2 , , 4.8 , , 1.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 15 , , 1 , , 0 , , 198 , , 81 , , 279 , , 103 , , 11 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 13.2 , , 5.4 , , 18.6 , , 6.9 , , 0.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 April ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 31 , , 7 , , 1 , , 1 , , 80 , , 36 , , 116 , , 35 , , 6 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 11.4 , , 5.1 , , 16.6 , , 5.0 , , 0.9 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 400 ! 71 ! 50 ! 4543 ! 1389 ! 5932 ! 1751 ! 451 ! 0.2 ! 0.1 ! 11.4 ! 3.5 ! 14.8 ! 4.4 ! 1.1

Honours and achievements

*Team **

AFL premiership This page is a complete chronological listing of VFL/AFL premiers. The Australian Football League (AFL), known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) until 1990, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football. The inaugur ...

: 1993, 2000 ** AFL pre-season premiership: 1994, 2000 **

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...

: 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001 *Individual **

: 2000, 2007 **

: 2000 **

AFL Rising Star 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 Buc ...

Nominee: 1993 **

International Rules Series The International Rules Series is a senior men's international rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team (selected by the Australian Football League) and the Ireland international rules football team (se ...

Player: 2005, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2015

Footnotes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Dustin Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club Premiership players 1975 births Living people All-Australians (AFL) Crichton Medal winners Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Western Jets players Australian sportspeople in doping cases Australia international rules football team players People educated at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Two-time VFL/AFL Premiership players