Jeff Farmer (footballer)
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Personal Info | |
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Birth | June 24, 1977, |
Recruited from | Tambellup, Western Australia
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Playing Career¹ | |
Debut | Round 1, April 1, 1995, Melbourne vs. Geelong, at Kardinia Park |
Team(s) | Melbourne (1995-2001)
118 games, 259 goals Fremantle (2002-) 100 games, 177 goals 218 games, 434 goals |
¹ Statistics to end of 2006 season | |
Career Highlights | |
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Jeff Farmer (born June 24, 1977) is an Aboriginal Australian rules footballer.
Known as "The Wizard" because of his uncanny ability to create goals from nothing, most of the time on bigger players, Jeff Farmer is an exeptional small forward for the Fremantle Dockers. Beginning his career with the Melbourne Demons in 1995, Farmer has always been one of the AFL's most exciting players.
His career best goalkicking performance came against Collingwood at the MCG in 2000 when he kicked 9 goals in the second half after barely being able to get a touch in the first two quarters. He was taken from the field for the third quarter and was on the interchange bench before Ben Beams suffered a broken wrist and was unable to continue.
He was traded to Fremantle at the end of 2001, where he has been spectacular at times and frustrating at others. However, in 2005 his consistency improved and he was among the Dockers' best forwards, booting 35 goals in 19 games.
During his time at Fremantle, Farmer has experienced some off-field troubles, including an incident where was convicted of assaulting his estranged de-facto wife and fined $2,000.
Being the first indigenous player to kick 400 goals, Jeff Farmer is the all time indigenous leading goal scorer and has recently been marked down as one of the AFL's elite players. Along with Matthew Pavlich, they are Fremantle's main goal-kickers.
During the 2006 home and away season, Jeff Farmer has turned into the AFL star he's always promised to be, kicking 50 goals from just 19 games, with a 31 goals in 7 games effort towards the end of the season. Due to this run of good form Farmer was thought by some to be a good chance of making All-Australian selection in the forward pocket. He was not, however, selected.