Brett Kirk

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**Brett Kirk**
Personal Info

Birth	October 25, 1976, Albury NSW
Recruited from	North Albury Football Club (NSW)
Height/Weight	184cm, 80kg
Playing Career¹
Debut	Round 19 1999, Sydney Swans vs. Kangaroos, at SCG
Team(s)	Sydney Swans 123 games, 51 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2005 season
Career Highlights
Sydney Best and fairest 2005 All-Australian 2004 International Rules Series (Australia) 2003, 2004 Premiership player 2005 Sydney Captain 2006

Brett Kirk (born 25 October 1976 in England) is an Australian rules football player with the Sydney Swans of the AFL, and is known colloquially as "Kirky", "Captain Kirk" or during the 2005 Finals Series, "Captain Blood".

Kirk migrated to Australia when he was 6 and grew up in Dubbo, in country New South Wales.

Kirk was a standout in North Albury in the highly competitive Ovens & Murray Football League before being drafted to the Sydney Swans as a rookie. He was elevated from the Swans rookie list and made his senior debut in 1999, despite having previously been cut from the supplementary list. For a while, he struggled to cement his place in the team, but since Paul Roos replaced Rodney Eade as coach, his career has blossomed. He has gained a reputation as a tough player, willing to put his body on the line and full of determination. He is usually ranked highly by number of handballs and hard-ball gets, and led the competition in tackles for 2004 and 2005.

He was runner-up for the clubs best and fairest award in both 2003 and 2004, making the All Australian Team in 2004. After the resignation of Stuart Maxfield from the Sydney captaincy in the early rounds of the 2005 premiership season, Kirk was one of the six players in the captaincy rotation. He captained the club for 4 games and was later named the best and fairest in the 2005 premiership winning team.

During a Round 18, 2006 game against Essendon, Kirk was booked for rough conduct against Ricky Dyson in the oprning moments of the game. He was cleared the following Monday.