Michael Long (footballer)

For other people with the same name, see Michael Long (disambiguation).
Michael Long
Personal information
Full name Michael Long
Date of birth (1969-10-01) 1 October 1969
Original team(s) St Mary's/West Torrens
Height / weight 178 cm / 82 kg
Position(s) Midfielder
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1989–2001 Essendon 190 (143)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1988
1993		 Northern Territory
QLD/NT		 3 (9)
1 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2001.
Career highlights

Michael Long (born 1 October 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer of Aboriginal descent and spokesperson for indigenous rights and against racism in sport.[1]

Early career

Despite being drafted to the VFL, the West Torrens Football Club of the Adelaide based SANFL argued that Long was "contracted with the club and could not play anywhere else." "I was guaranteed this wasn't the case, so I took the contract to Darwin and met with Michael's father Jack and he was irate. He grabbed it and wrote the word 'bullshit' right across the front of it. When it became clear he wanted to play at Essendon, West Torrens agreed it wasn't a binding contract", Judkins said.

However, despite this Long did play for West Torrens during the 1988 SANFL season, winning the clubs best and fairest award, the third last player to do so as the Eagles merged with the Woodville Football Club following the 1990 season to become the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles.

Australian Football League career

Long played perhaps the best game of his career in the 1993 AFL Grand Final. Playing on Mark Athorn, Long ran amok, helping Essendon gain a healthy quarter-time lead, and to maintain it. By the end of the game, he had amassed 20 kicks and 13 handballs, totaling 33 possessions.

Long's performance was rewarded with the Norm Smith Medal, which was presented to him by fellow Tiwi Islander Maurice Rioli.[2]

In the pre-season of 1994 in a practice match against the West Coast Eagles, Long injured his knee which required 12 months of solid rehabilitation, and he was not seen for the entire 1994 AFL Home and Away season.

In 1995 Long made a triumphant return to AFL football and played almost a full season. In the Anzac Day match between Essendon and Collingwood at the MCG, Long claimed to have been racially taunted by Collingwood's ruckman, Damian Monkhorst.

The AFL arranged a mediation session between Long and Monkhorst and although Long was clearly unsatisfied by the short-term outcome of this meeting, long-term it set a precedent and since this incident, there have only been three widely publicised accusations of racial taunts on the AFL field.

For the next two seasons he needed knee surgery and only took the field seven times. He missed the first half of 1998 recovering from the surgery, but finished the year strongly playing in nine games.

According to the round 3 AFL Record of 1999, between the beginning of the 1994 and end of the 1998 seasons, Long played only 38 of a possible 119 games.

Long had the honour of kicking the first ever goal at the new Docklands Stadium when it opened in 2000. He was also a member of Essendon's record-breaking premiership team in 2000 which saw only one loss for the entire season. Long faced heavy scrutiny for his bump on Troy Simmonds, which rendered Simmonds unconscious and raised the possibility of him losing mobility – which fortunately never eventuated. However, this incident inspired the AFL to introduce new rules protecting players with their heads over the ball. Long was suspended for this incident.

2001 was Long's final season and although Essendon made the Grand Final that year, Long aggravated a hamstring during grand final training and was forced to name himself unavailable on the eve of the game, which Essendon lost to the Brisbane Lions who would go on to win three straight premierships.

Playing statistics

[3]
Season Team # Games G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
Totals Averages (per game)
1989 Essendon 4 24 19 10 233 203 436 68 63 0.8 0.4 9.7 8.5 18.2 2.8 2.6
1990 Essendon 4 25 13 9 221 184 405 58 51 0.5 0.4 8.8 7.4 16.2 2.3 2.0
1991 Essendon 13 18 13 6 170 132 302 26 34 0.7 0.3 9.4 7.3 16.8 1.4 1.9
1992 Essendon 13 17 13 8 182 157 339 56 34 0.8 0.5 10.7 9.2 19.9 3.3 2.0
1993 Essendon 13 18 12 4 228 188 416 72 40 0.7 0.2 12.7 10.4 23.1 4.0 2.2
1994 Essendon 13 0 — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
1995 Essendon 13 22 27 18 294 221 515 80 40 1.2 0.8 13.4 10.0 23.4 3.6 1.8
1996 Essendon 13 2 2 0 9 6 15 1 2 1.0 0.0 4.5 3.0 7.5 0.5 1.0
1997 Essendon 13 5 4 6 37 39 76 19 3 0.8 1.2 7.4 7.8 15.2 3.8 0.6
1998 Essendon 13 9 9 4 54 60 114 30 9 1.0 0.4 6.0 6.7 12.7 3.3 1.0
1999 Essendon 13 20 12 12 223 122 345 62 27 0.6 0.6 11.2 6.1 17.3 3.1 1.4
2000 Essendon 13 23 18 18 230 135 365 72 59 0.8 0.8 10.0 5.9 15.9 3.1 2.6
2001 Essendon 13 7 1 4 42 30 72 16 16 0.1 0.6 6.0 4.3 10.3 2.3 2.3
Career 190 143 99 1923 1477 3400 560 378 0.8 0.5 10.1 7.8 17.9 2.9 2.0

Post-football

Following his retirement, Long became a spokesman for Indigenous Australians. He was also a critic of then Prime Minister John Howard's policies towards Indigenous Australians – most notably Howard's refusal to make an apology to the Stolen Generation. In a letter published in Melbourne's The Age, Long likened Howard to 'those cold-hearted pricks' who stole his parents. His political activities culminated in a protest march from Melbourne to Canberra, Australia's national capital. The aim of the walk was to obtain a meeting with the Prime Minister. After ten days of intense media scrutiny of the walk, the Prime Minister eventually granted Long a meeting who called an end to the walk, having completed about 325 km of the planned 650 km walk.[4]

In 2006 he was charged with assaulting a man at a football club function. He pleaded guilty but no conviction was recorded.[5]

In July 2011, Long signed up as the latest ambassador for weight loss agency Jenny Craig. Weighing 112 kg, 30 kg more than his playing weight, his aim was to drop at least 10 kg in around 10 weeks.[6] In September 2011 on The Footy Show, he announced he had smashed his goal, losing 17 kg in 10 weeks.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Racism in AFL much less: Long". The Age. 8 May 2003.
  2. ↑ NT great to present Norm Smith
  3. ↑ Michael Long's player profile at AFL Tables
  4. ↑ Landers, Kim (3 December 2004). "Long walk secures meeting with Howard Reporter:". Lateline.
  5. ↑ AFL great escapes assault conviction
  6. ↑ Langmaid, Aaron (5 July 2011). "Michael Long makes a stand for indigenous health". Herald Sun.

References

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