Adam McPhee

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Adam McPhee
Personal information
Full name Adam McPhee
Nickname(s) Smokey[1]
Date of birth (1982-10-06) 6 October 1982 (age 41)
Place of birth Melbourne, Australia
Original team(s) Dandenong U18 (TAC Cup)
Draft No. 39, 2000 National Draft, Fremantle
No. 3, 2010 Pre-Season Draft, Fremantle
Height 190 cm (6 ft 3 in)
Weight 89 kg (196 lb)
Position(s) Forward/Defender
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2001–2002 Fremantle 25 (9)
2003–2009 Essendon 142 (83)
2010–2012 Fremantle 56 (20)
Total 223 (112)
International team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
2004 Australia 2 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2012.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Adam McPhee (born 6 October 1982) is an Australian rules football player who played for the Fremantle Football Club and the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is a versatile player who has played both as a forward, defender and tagging role, with high-profile clashes with Gary Ablett, Jr. and Chris Judd in 2010.[2]

Australian Football League career[edit]

First stint at Fremantle[edit]

McPhee was originally recruited by Fremantle from the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup with the 39th selection in the 2000 AFL Draft. He made his AFL debut in 2001 and was nominated for the AFL Rising Star award that year. By the end of 2002, McPhee played 25 games in total for the Dockers. He was then traded to Essendon in his home state of Victoria in a three-way deal also involving Brisbane. Essendon had previously hoped to draft him late in the 2000 draft, but Fremantle had picked him ahead of where Essendon had expected him to be taken.[3]

Essendon years[edit]

In McPhee's first year at Essendon he played every game and his tough approach earned him the club's "most courageous player" award. However it was in 2004 that McPhee really made his mark as an AFL player. In that year he was selected on the half-back flank in the All-Australian team, won the W.S. Crichton Medal as Essendon's best and fairest player and was Essendon's highest vote getter in the Brownlow Medal.[4]

In 2005, McPhee was restricted to only 14 games through injury and could not repeat his feats of 2004.[5]

On 30 July 2006, McPhee played his 100th senior game at the Telstra Dome. It was capped off with a win over the Brisbane Lions which broke, what was at the time, the club's longest streak without a win in its history, when he took a spectacular mark and also kicked a magnificent goal on the run.[6] He missed out on the honour the previous week because of a one match suspension served for striking St Kilda's Robert Harvey in an attempted spoil.[7]

On 25 April 2009, in the Anzac Day match, McPhee celebrated his 150th game with a five-point victory over Collingwood.[8]

Return to Fremantle[edit]

After long discussions about a new contract with the Bombers, McPhee did not sign a new contract with Essendon by the 2.00pm deadline on 10 November 2009. Many believe McPhee left Essendon due to a fall out with the Coach of Essendon at the time, Matthew Knights. McPhee was expected to nominate to be drafted to another club and as expected, his former club Fremantle selected him with their selection in the pre-season draft. The possible move to Fremantle had been heavily criticised in some circles, partly as a result of the club's recent history in drafting mature-age recruits, but it has been applauded in other circles as the club gave up virtually nothing to land him.[9] His first match against his old club Essendon saw him hit the post twice, drop marks and kick out of bounds on the full right in front of Bombers fans who booed him consistently throughout the match. Despite his clangers, Fremantle managed to upset Essendon by 44 points.[10][11]

After McPhee's tough start in his return to Fremantle, he improved as the season went on after a change in role. McPhee played his best football for the Dockers towards the end of the season as a run-with player (tagger), a role which requires stopping the influence of the opposition team's most damaging players. McPhee's best game came against Hawthorn in the Elimination final, keeping Hawks champion Luke Hodge to just 13 disposals, and only 5 in the first three quarters.

In 2012 McPhee returned to the backline under new coach Ross Lyon, but mainly played on the smaller forwards.[12]

At the end of the 2012 season, a month after signing a one-year contract extension, McPhee retired from AFL football for family reasons. While there was much speculation he would return to his former club, the Essendon Football Club, he returned to Melbourne to work for his father-in-law's company.[12] He continues to play football and as of 2015 is playing for St Mary's in the Geelong Football League.[13]

Statistics[edit]

[14]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
2001 Fremantle 17 14 5 3 116 65 181 61 32 0.4 0.2 8.3 4.6 12.9 4.4 2.3 0
2002 Fremantle 17 11 4 1 71 37 108 46 17 0.4 0.1 6.5 3.4 9.8 4.2 1.5 0
2003 Essendon 33 24 10 7 177 140 317 98 67 0.4 0.3 7.4 5.8 13.2 4.1 2.8 0
2004 Essendon 33 21 15 9 237 125 362 125 56 0.7 0.4 11.3 6.0 17.2 6.0 2.7 12
2005 Essendon 33 14 9 4 185 72 257 113 32 0.6 0.3 13.2 5.1 18.4 8.1 2.3 6
2006 Essendon 33 20 8 9 234 113 347 142 56 0.4 0.5 11.7 5.7 17.4 7.1 2.8 0
2007 Essendon 33 22 7 4 279 166 445 181 68 0.3 0.2 12.7 7.5 20.2 8.2 3.1 6
2008 Essendon 33 20 18 12 188 119 307 143 55 0.9 0.6 9.4 6.0 15.4 7.2 2.8 1
2009 Essendon 33 21 16 8 207 164 371 136 55 0.8 0.4 9.9 7.8 17.7 6.5 2.6 1
2010 Fremantle 9 23 9 17 179 140 319 95 107 0.4 0.7 7.8 6.1 13.9 4.1 4.7 0
2011 Fremantle 9 12 9 12 86 61 147 40 33 0.8 1.0 7.2 5.1 12.3 3.3 2.8 0
2012 Fremantle 9 21 2 0 235 109 344 124 36 0.1 0.0 11.2 5.2 16.4 5.9 1.7 0
Career 223 112 86 2194 1311 3505 1304 614 0.5 0.4 9.8 5.9 15.7 5.8 2.8 26

References[edit]

  1. ^ Quayle, Emma (4 November 2002). "Bomber Smokey, a real trailblazer". The Age.
  2. ^ Versatile McPhee brings plenty to Dockers' cause
  3. ^ Quayle, Emma (21 August 2004). "Dons' Operation McPhee". The Age.
  4. ^ Moncrief, Marc (30 September 2004). "McPhee named Bombers' best". The Age.
  5. ^ Lane, Samantha (20 November 2005). "McPhee on the run again". The Sunday Age.
  6. ^ Boulton, Martin (30 July 2006) See the Bombers fly up, up to a much wanted win
  7. ^ "McPhee facing one-match ban". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 17 July 2006. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Malthouse fumes: We let Anzacs down". ABC News (Australia). 26 April 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  9. ^ McPhee will be a free hit at the Dockers, The Roar, Retrieved on 27 November 2009
  10. ^ Dockers break drought by beating Bombers
  11. ^ "Torrid return to Victoria for luckless Docker Adam McPhee". Archived from the original on 10 April 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  12. ^ a b Duffield, Mark (20 November 2012). "Why McPhee called it quits". The West Australian.
  13. ^ Wade, Nick (7 March 2015). "GFL: St Mary's brings in Adam McPhee but is still the great unknown of the upcoming season". Geelong Advertiser. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  14. ^ "Adam McPhee stats". AFL Tables. Retrieved 1 October 2019.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adam McPhee.
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