Justin Plapp (born 22 June 1977) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Justin was born in

Penguin, Tasmania Penguin is a town on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is in the Central Coast Council local government area and on the Bass Highway, between Burnie and Ulverstone. At the , Penguin had a population of 4,132. History Penguin was ...

and attended Penguin High School. Plapp caught the attention of AFL clubs after kicking 98 goals with the Burnie Dockers in 1996, which was the most by a player in the TFL Statewide League that year. He was recruited by Richmond in the draft, and played in Richmond's reserves premiership in 1997. He started his senior AFL career in 1998 with two good performances at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, three goals on debut against Fremantle and five more in a win over Carlton the following weekend. His five-goal haul in the second game earned him an

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 ...

nomination. In the 1999 AFL draft, Plapp was traded to St Kilda for pick 39, Scott Homewood. He was used at St Kilda as a half back flanker in his three seasons. He was appointed captain-coach of the Burnie Dockers in 2008 and continued on into the first season of the revamped Tasmanian State League competition in 2009. After leading his Burnie team to second position after the roster season, the Dockers were to crash out in straights sets in the finals. Plapp's final match as a player was to be memorable for his missed set shot at goal after the final siren in the 2009 Preliminary Final which saw the Dockers lose to eventual premier Clarence by 4 points marking a sad end to Plapp's playing career and subsequently his coaching career at Burnie. Plapp quit his post soon after due to a dispute with the Burnie board of directors and returned to Victoria. He took on assistant coaching roles in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

at Box Hill in 2010, and at Williamstown in 2011, before taking the senior coaching job at the

Sandringham Dragons The Sandringham Dragons are an Australian rules football club playing in the NAB League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria, Australia. They are based at the Trevor Barker Oval in Sandringham, Victoria, representing the souther ...

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 Vict ...

under 18s competition from 2012 until 2014. He became the senior coach of the

Casey Scorpions The Casey Football Club, nicknamed the "Demons" and formerly the "Scorpions", is an Australian rules football club based in Cranbourne East, Victoria. The club, which was known until 2005 as the Springvale Football Club and the Casey Scorpions ...

in the VFL in 2015. Afterwards, Plapp returned home to Penguin and played for the Penguin Two Blues in the

North West Football League The North West Football League is an Australian rules football competition in North West Tasmania. The league was previously known as the "Northern Tasmanian Football League" from its inception in 1987 until the end of the 2014 season. History ...

References

* *Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. {{DEFAULTSORT:Plapp, Justin 1977 births Living people Richmond Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Burnie Dockers Football Club players Penguin Football Club players Tasmanian Devils Football Club players Casey Demons coaches Australian rules footballers from Tasmania