John Shane McCarthy (19 November 1989 – 9 September 2012) was 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...

and

Port Adelaide Football Club 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 it is nicknamed the ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL).

Playing career

Drafted by Collingwood with the 31st selection in the 2007 National Draft, McCarthy was a midfielder. He made his debut late in the

2008 AFL season The 2008 AFL season was the 112th 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 sixt ...

and held his position for the last six matches of the year, including two finals. He struggled to maintain his place in the Collingwood side in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, playing only two games in each season due to poor form and injuries. In each year, however, he returned to the senior side at the end of the year, playing in the qualifying final in 2009 and being named as an emergency for the

2010 AFL Grand Final The 2010 AFL Grand Final was a series of two Australian rules football matches between the Collingwood Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club. They are considered the 114th and 115th AFL Grand Final, grand finals of the Australian Football ...

. He played eight games in 2011; however, he was not selected during the finals, being delisted by Collingwood at the end of the 2011 season. After training with

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

, he was drafted by

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, 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 t ...

in the 2012 pre-season draft, who had the selection before Richmond. He cemented his place in the Port side for the 2012 season, missing only one game for the year.

Education

McCarthy attended The Peninsula School in

Mount Eliza, Victoria Mount Eliza is a seaside suburb on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Mount Eliza recorded a ...

, graduating in 2007.

Family

McCarthy's father

Shane Shane may refer to: People * Shane (name), a masculine given name and a surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with this name * Shane (actress) (born 1969), American pornographic actress * Shane (New Zealand singer) (born ...

and brother Matthew both played football with

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

. He also had two uncles, Bernie and Gavan, who played for

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...

. His grandfather

Alan Olle Alan Charles Olle (23 July 1924 – 12 October 2004)Alan Charles Olle's obituary in the ''Herald Sun'', 14 October 2004 was an Australian rules footballer who played for in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Early life Olle was born in ...

and great uncle Jack Coffey played for .

Death

McCarthy died on 9 September 2012, after falling from a rooftop at the

Flamingo Hotel Flamingo Las Vegas (formerly the Flamingo Hilton) is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. The Flamingo includes a casino and a 28-story hotel with 3,460 rooms. The res ...

on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits ...

Paradise, Nevada Paradise is an Unincorporated towns in Nevada, unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. It was formed on December 8, 1950. Its population was 191,238 at the ...

. The incident occurred at the start of a post-season holiday for McCarthy and other Port Adelaide players. They had arrived in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

resort city only a few hours before the incident. After reviewing evidence, police said that McCarthy had attempted to jump off the roof onto a

palm tree The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...

, but slipped and fell to the ground. Following his passing, Port Adelaide retired the #35 jersey until the 2nd of December, 2024.

References

External links

*
John McCarthy
at Find a Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, John Collingwood Football Club players 1989 births 2012 deaths Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Dandenong Stingrays players Port Adelaide Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) Accidental deaths in Nevada Accidental deaths from falls 21st-century Australian sportsmen People educated at Peninsula Grammar