| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth | 11 February 1966 , Australia |
| Recruited from | Brunswick City / North Melbourne |
| Height and weight | 163 cm / 78 kg |
| Playing career¹ | |
| Team(s) |
Footscray/Western Bulldogs (1986–2002)
|
| ¹ Statistics to end of 2002 season | |
| Career highlights | |
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Anthony "Tony" Liberatore (born 11 February 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray (renamed the Western Bulldogs during his playing career) in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Liberatore is the only player to have won best-and-fairest medals in the Victorian under-19, Reserves and VFL/AFL. Liberatore is one of the shortest players to have played in the VFL/AFL competition and the shortest player to have won a Brownlow Medal.
The tough rover for a long time held the record in the VFL/AFL for the most career tackles.[1] He was much-hated by opposition fans for his ability to play close, pestering tagging roles.
Tony Liberatore was born in Australia to Italian parents.[2]
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Liberatore started his football at Brunswick City. He was recruited by North Melbourne and played both under-19s and reserve grade football.
Liberatore moved to Footscray in 1986 and, although he made his senior debut for the Bulldogs in 1986, he mainly played in the reserves, winning the Gardiner Medal in 1986 and 1988.[3]
Standing at 163 cm, "Libba" had played only 18 league games in his first four seasons, before he had a breakout season in 1990, playing 19 games and winning the Brownlow Medal for the best and fairest player in the league.
He finished his career with 283 games in a career that included 13 finals, life membership, and selection on the interchange bench in the club's Team of the Century.
At times during his career, however, he drew attention and criticism. His tackling style was heavily scrutinised and as he developed into one of the league's first specialist taggers during the late 1990s he had many controversial incidents with opposition players, including Paul Kelly, Steven Lawrence and Matthew Knights.[3]
Liberatore is recorded to have lain 1225 tackles in his careerNote, at an average of 4.39 tackles per game. Such high tackle counts were unheard of for a player of Liberatore's era, a time when the league average was 20-30 tackles per team per game.[4] In 1992 he became the first player to lay 100 tackles in a season,[5] and repeated the feat every season until 1996,[6][7][8][9] no other player achieved the feat until 2001.[10]
Liberatore's tackling records were all surpassed during the latter half of the 2000s decade, largely because of a fundamental change in playing style which saw the league's average tackle count increase to between 60-70 tackles per team per game by 2009 - more than double the average during Liberatore's time.[4] His season tally of 142 tackles in 1994 stood as the record until 2006, when James McDonald bettered it by one.[11] His record of 1225 career tackles stood until 2010, when it was surpassed by Brett Kirk (who finished his career with 1278 tackles).[1] His tackles-per-game average of 4.39 has also been surpassed several times, with the best modern players now averaging more than five tackles per game.[1]
Since retiring Liberatore has appeared in the E J Whitten Legends Game for Victoria on multiple occasions since 2003 and was the Man of the Match in 2007.[12]
Liberatore coached the Box Hill Hawks in the Victorian Football League in 2003 taking them to the Grand Final. From 2003 to 2007, Liberatore held an assistant coaching position at the Carlton Football Club. In 2008, he implied that Carlton had tanked at the end of the season to secure the number one draft selection, Matthew Kreuzer.[13]
In 2008, Liberatore was the senior coach of the Sunbury Lions Football Club in the Ballarat Football League. In 2009, Liberatore joined the Western Region Football League as senior coach of the West Footscray Roosters.[14]
In February 2008 Liberatore strongly criticised the current Western Bulldogs administration, including president David Smorgon and chief executive Campbell Rose.[15] In June 2009 he apologised for his comments, stating that his comments were based on incorrect information and that he was going through personal problems at the time, including a separation from his wife Jane.[16]
His son, Thomas, represented Victoria at under 16 level in 2008[17] and has been selected as a father-son selection at the 2010 AFL Draft.[16]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Paul Couch |
Brownlow Medallist 1990 |
Succeeded by Jim Stynes |
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