Michael Long

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Michael Long is a former Australian rules footballer and outspoken critic of racism in sport. He was born October 1, 1969 in Darwin, Northern Territory.

[edit] Football Career

After debuting for Evagnago in the Northern Territory, Long played for SANFL club West Torrens before his recruitment by Australian Football League (AFL) club Essendon. He also played for St. Mary's in the Northern Territory before heading to Essendon.

Michael Long debuted for Essendon in 1989 and was recognised as Essendon's best first year player. He played in Essendon's finals series that year, as well as playing an important role in the qualifying final that year, kicking 4 goals in Essendon's 76 point demolition of eventual runner-up, Geelong.

In 1990 Long was a member of Essendon's grand final team.

In 1993, Michael Long stamped his class and made himself noticed. After a well-performed 1993 Home and Away season, Michael stamped his class on Essendon's final two games for the year.

In the preliminary final against Adelaide when Essendon trailed by 42 points at half time, Michael put in a strong second half to help Essendon win the game by 11 points and challenge Carlton for the premiership.

In the Grand Final that year, Michael Long played perhaps the best game of his career. Playing on Mark Athorn, Michael ran amok, helping Essendon amass a healthy quarter-time lead, and helping to maintain it. By the end of the game, he had amassed 20 kicks and 13 handballs, totalling 33 possessions. Long's performance that day was phenomenal. 1993 was also the International Year for the World's Indigenous People. Australian Rules Football's greatest ever indigenous player, Graham Farmer was selected to present the player adjudged best on ground the Norm Smith Medal, which crowns Long's most dominant display on a football field.

From here, Long experienced great difficulty in returning to the football field. In the pre-season of 1994 in a practice match against the West Coast Eagles, long damaged his anterior cruciate ligament and requiring 12 months of solid rehabilitation, 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, Damien 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.

In 1996 long required more knee surgery. He played only two games for the year.

In 1997, Long required even more surgery on his knee and played only 5 games.

He missed the first half of 1998 recovering from 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 possibly 119 games.

In 2000 Long was a member of Essendon's record-breaking premiership team 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. 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.

[edit] References

1. Main, Jim. The Big Aussie Rules Book, Bombers have too Long to wait, Rugby Press Limited 1994 page 67

2. Hobbs, Greg. AFL Record, A mighty Long performance to offset a captain's pain, Australian Football League, Progress Printers & Distributors, Round 3 1999, page 61

3. Football Record, AFL Grand Final Football Record, 1993

4. Main, Jim. & Christison, Darren, 1989 Football The Year in Review, Century Magazines 1989

5. The 90's: The Decade that Delivered (video/DVD)