Drew Banfield

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**Drew Banfield**
Personal Info
Birth	February 27, 1974,
Recruited from	Subiaco Football Club (WAFL)
Height/Weight	184cm / 88kg
Playing Career¹
Debut	Round 16, July 18, 1993, West Coast Eagles vs. Essendon, at Melbourne Cricket Ground
Team(s)	West Coast Eagles (1993-2006) 265 games, 76 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2006 season
Career Highlights
West Coast Eagles premiership team 1994, 2006 West Coast Eagles Best and Fairest 1996

Drew Banfield (born February 27, 1974) is a former Australian rules footballer.

Selected as the number 1 pick in the 1992 AFL Draft, Banfield was recruited to the West Coast Eagles, where he has since become one of their best clubmen and hardest-working defenders and utility players.

He won the Eagles' Club Champion Award in 1996, as well as playing in the Eagles' 1994 premiership side. He is not the most flashy of players, but his hard-working attributes and constant presence in the team for over a decade qualifies him as a more than worthy number one draft pick. In 2006 the West Coast Eagles were celebrating their 20th anniversary, and a best team of the clubs history was chosen. Consideration was based on 100 games played for the West Coast Eagles, career longevity, finishes in the Club Champion Award, impact and other individual accolades. Drew Banfield was named on the interchange bench in this side and will go down as one of the Eagles' greats.

In 2006, Banfield fought his way into the side in Round 9, but remained on the fringes of selection. He missed out on the semi-final against the Bulldogs but was recalled for the preliminary final against Adelaide, and retained for the Grand Final against Sydney due to his experience. In the same match, he played a crucial marking role on Sydney's Nick Davis during the latter stages of the match that, ultimately, helped his side to victory. It was his second AFL premiership, 12 years after his first. On Friday the 6th of October 2006, Banfield announced his retirement from AFL football at the West Coast Eagles Club Champion awards, after 265 games.

Drew is married to Amber Lee-Steere and has one son, named Bailey.