Scott West

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Scott West
Personal information
Date of birth (1974-11-14) 14 November 1974
Place of birthSwan Reach, South Australia
Original teamStrathmore
DebutRound 1, 1993, Footscray
v. Collingwood, at Melbourne Cricket Ground
Height/Weight178 cm / 80 kg
Playing career1

Western Bulldogs (1993–2008)

324 games, 104 goals
1 Playing statistics correct to end of Rnd 2, 2008 season.
Career highlights

Scott West (born 14 November 1974) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League. West was a tough "in-and-under" midfielder who was hard at the ball, especially around the stoppages, and was regularly one of the leading possession accumulators in the competition.

West is the former coach of the Werribee Football Club who compete in the Victorian Football League, one level under the AFL.

Early career

West attended Essendon Grammar and was recruited to the Footscray Football Club (now Western Bulldogs) where he made his debut in 1993. He won an AFL Rising Star nomination that season. In 1993 and 1994 he wore the number 14 guernsey, before changing to his famous number 7 in the wake of Doug Hawkins' departure to Fitzroy in 1995.

AFL career

West is regarded as one of the most consistent players in the AFL over a long time-frame. He has regularly made the most disposals in the AFL in the past ten years, and has made AFL All-Australian selection on five occasions in 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2006. He won seven club best-and-fairest awards (Charles Sutton Medals); his victory in 2005 overtaking Gary Dempsey's previous record of six.

Late in 2006 West had been described as being in the best form of his career despite him being 32 years of age and completing his 300th game. This run of form included an incredible career best 45 disposals in one match against the Adelaide Crows. In the 2006 season, West became the first player on record (recorded since 1987) to amass more than 400 handpasses in a season, finishing with 423.

Scott West is considered to be one of the best ever players not to have won a Brownlow medal. He came third in 1999, second (by two votes) in 2000 and (by three votes) in 2006 and fourth in 2004 and 2005. In 2006 he won the Sunday Footy Show's Lou Richards award for best player as voted by Channel 9's football commentators. He was the crowd favourite to win the Brownlow Medal in 2006, due to his string of close misses and secondly, because he was one of the few Victoria-based players with a high chance of winning the award, during a period when non-Victorian teams were dominating the league. West ended up finishing second in 2006 behind Adam Goodes.

On September 23, 2008, his illustrated career came to an end after the club said he was no longer required at the club.[1] Despite being 33 years old when he retired, many considered it to be a premature end to his career as he was still greatly contributing to the Western Bulldogs in a key midfielder position.

After AFL

In early 2008, West was named in the Western Bulldogs Team of the Century along with Footscray great Ted Whitten. The Scott West Award was named in his honour.

In 2009, West took up a part-time Assistant Coach position at the Melbourne Football Club.

In 2012 Scott West became the coach of the Werribee Football Club in the VFL.

In 2013 Scott was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Media Profile

West has made several appearances on the AFL Footy Show and appeared on a pizza ad with Melbourne's David Neitz.

References

  1. ↑ "Bulldogs axe West". AFL.com.au. 2008-09-23. Retrieved 2008-09-23. 

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Chris Grant		 Western Bulldogs Best and Fairest winner
1995 		Succeeded by
Chris Grant, Jose Romero
Preceded by
Chris Grant, Jose Romero		 Western Bulldogs Best and Fairest winner
1997–1998 		Succeeded by
Brad Johnson
Preceded by
Brad Johnson		 Western Bulldogs Best and Fairest winner
2000 		Succeeded by
Luke Darcy
Preceded by
Brad Johnson		 Western Bulldogs Best and Fairest winner
2003–2005 		Succeeded by
Brad Johnson
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