Gerard Healy (born 1 March 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer and commentator. Healy attended St Bede's College in Mentone, where he was the senior football captain. Gerard is a trained physiotherapist.

VFL career

Melbourne Demons

Beginning his career with the Melbourne Football Club in 1979, Healy played mostly in a

forward pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

role in attack before switching to an on-baller/midfielder role and establishing himself as one of the premier ball winners in the competition. He won Melbourne's best and fairest award in 1984.

Sydney Swans

He left the Demons in 1985, after playing 130 games, moving to the Sydney Swans at the beginning of the 1986 season. He immediately made an impact at the Swans, winning best and fairests in his first three years with the team – 1986, 1987, 1988. Season 1988 was to prove the finest of his career. In addition to the Swans' Best & Fairest award, Healy took home the

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 t ...

as the VFL's fairest and best player, the VFL Players Association MVP and the

Simpson Medal The Simpson Medal is an individual prize awarded for Australian rules football in Western Australia. The medal has been donated by Dr Fred Simpson and family since 1945. Simpson Medals are currently awarded to the following players: *The best pl ...

for best on ground in the Victoria vs Western Australia state game played in Perth. He retired from Sydney in 1991 due to a serious wrist injury. He was later recognised as one of Sydney's greats, being named in their

Team of the Century In team sport, team of the century and team of the decade are hypothetical best teams over a given time period. For the century team, it can be either 100 years, or for a century (always the 20th). Similarly the team of the decade can be for 10 ...

. Following his forced retirement Collingwood picked Healy in the 1991 Pre-Season Draft on the chance that his injury would recover but Healy never played another AFL match. In 2000 Healy was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. On 18 July 2009, he was also inducted into the Sydney Swans Hall of Fame.

Playing statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 21 , , 10 , , 19 , , 244 , , 71 , , 315 , , 55 , , , , 0.5 , , 0.9 , , 11.6 , , 3.4 , , 15.0 , , 2.6 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1980 , style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 7 , , 4 , , 9 , , 123 , , 52 , , 175 , , 36 , , , , 0.6 , , 1.3 , , 17.6 , , 7.4 , , 25.0 , , 5.1 , , , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 22 , , 27 , , 14 , , 295 , , 157 , , 452 , , 92 , , , , 1.2 , , 0.6 , , 13.4 , , 7.1 , , 20.5 , , 4.2 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1982 , style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 21 , , 77 , , 55 , , 263 , , 89 , , 352 , , 99 , , , , 3.7 , , 2.6 , , 12.5 , , 4.2 , , 16.8 , , 4.7 , , , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 19 , , 37 , , 41 , , 198 , , 72 , , 270 , , 98 , , , , 1.9 , , 2.2 , , 10.4 , , 3.8 , , 14.2 , , 5.2 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 19 , , 25 , , 304 , , 133 , , 437 , , 81 , , , , 1.0 , , 1.3 , , 15.2 , , 6.7 , , 21.9 , , 4.1 , , , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 15 , , 18 , , 301 , , 125 , , 426 , , 84 , , , , 0.8 , , 0.9 , , 15.1 , , 6.3 , , 21.3 , , 4.2 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 22 , , 26 , , 21 , , 344 , , 212 , , 556 , , 82 , , , , 1.2 , , 1.0 , , 15.6 , , 9.6 , , 25.3 , , 3.7 , , , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 22 , , 18 , , 302 , , 185 , , 487 , , 65 , , 37 , , 1.1 , , 0.9 , , 15.1 , , 9.3 , , 24.4 , , 3.3 , , 1.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 26 , , 34 , , 351 , , 218 , , 569 , , 89 , , 25 , , 1.3 , , 1.7 , , 17.6 , , 10.9 , , 28.5 , , 4.5 , , 1.3 , -style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 8 , , 6 , , 4 , , 150 , , 64 , , 214 , , 22 , , 9 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 18.8 , , 8.0 , , 26.8 , , 2.8 , , 1.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 11 , , 7 , , 12 , , 212 , , 100 , , 312 , , 37 , , 12 , , 0.6 , , 1.1 , , 19.3 , , 9.1 , , 28.4 , , 3.4 , , 1.1 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 211 ! 276 ! 270 ! 3087 ! 1478 ! 4565 ! 840 ! 83 ! 1.3 ! 1.3 ! 14.6 ! 7.0 ! 21.6 ! 4.0 ! 1.4

Honours and achievements

Broadcasting career

After retiring in 1990, Healy became an commentator with the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

on their AFL coverage. Healy was a special comments in 5 AFL grand finals with Seven. On radio, he has also been a long-time special comments man on 3AW for their AFL coverage, as well as hosting ''

Sports Today ''Sports Today'' is a long-running radio show on Melbourne, Australia radio station 3AW. It currently airs on Monday to Thursday from 6 pm to 8 pm and is hosted by Gerard Healy and Sam McClure. Previously, it was hosted by David Hookes and ...

'' since 1996. He gave a heartfelt farewell message on the show to his co-host

David Hookes David William Hookes (3 May 1955 – 19 January 2004) grew up in Torrensville and was a South Australian and Australian cricketer, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in ...

after his death in 2004. Hookes was later replaced on the show by Dwayne Russell. His audio commentary also has been used for computer games, including as ''AFL 2007'' along with

Dennis Cometti Dennis John Cometti (born 26 March 1949) is an Australian retired sports commentator, player and coach of Australian rules football. In a career spanning 51 years, his smooth voice, dry humour and quick wit became his trademark. Until his reti ...

. Following Seven losing the AFL rights, Healy joined Nine Network as a special commentator for the 2002 & 2003 seasons, before moving to Fox Footy Channel from 2004 in the same role until its closure in 2006 as well as hosting '' On the Couch'' in which he did during his time on Nine. He continued his commentary role for AFL matches with

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

from 2007 and since 2012 on second version of

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

Personal life

Gerard Healy is married to Lisa (née Gluyas) and together they have three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Healy, Gerard 1961 births All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules football commentators Brownlow Medal winners Leigh Matthews Trophy winners Victorian State of Origin players Bob Skilton Medal winners Living people Melbourne Football Club players Sydney Swans players Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy winners Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) E. J. Whitten Medal winners Australia international rules football team players 3AW presenters