Tony Liberatore

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**Tony Liberatore**
Personal information
Birth	February 11, 1966 (1966-02-11) (age 42),
Recruited from	Brunswick City/Nth Melbourn
Height and weight	163 cm / 77 kg
Playing career¹
Debut	1986, Footscray Bulldogs vs. , at
Team(s)	Footscray/Western Bulldogs (1986-2002) 283 games 95 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2002 season
Career highlights
Morrish Medal 1984 Brownlow Medal 1990 Charles Sutton Medal 1991 Western Bulldogs official 'Team of the Century' squad member VFL-AFL Italian Team of the Century 2007

Anthony (Tony) Liberatore (born February 11, 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer. He is the only player to have won the best-and-fairest medals in the Victorian under-19, Reserves and VFL.

As one of the shortest players in the history of the game, standing at 163cm, "Libba", of Italian descent, was told he didn't have what it takes to make it at the elite level by ex footscray coach Michael Malthouse^{[citation needed]}. But his guts and sheer determination marked him down as one of the Western Bulldogs greats.

The rover won the Brownlow Medal in 1990, and retired in 2002 after 283 games for the Bulldogs. He was much-hated by opposition fans for his ability to play close, pestering tagging roles. Libba is well known as being an exceptionally "dirty" player for these close tagging roles^{[citation needed]}. Umpires paid particularly close attention to him, and this was not without merit^{[citation needed]}.

Liberatore coached the Box Hill Hawks in the Victorian Football League in 2003 taking them to the Grand Final. From 2004 to 2006, Liberatore has held an assistant coaching position at the Carlton Football Club^{[citation needed]}. In 2008 he claimed Carlton "tanked" matches at the end of the season to secure the no. 1 draft selection, Matthew Kreuzer. His former number at The Western Bulldogs is now filled by rising rookie Malcolm Lynch. Has relation in back to the future.