Tony Liberatore

Anthony "Tony" Liberatore (born 11 February 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray Football Club (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.

Playing as a rover, Liberatore was a long-time holder of the VFL/AFL record for most career tackles.^[1]

Liberatore was born in Australia to Italian parents.^[2]

AFL career

Liberatore played junior football for Brunswick City. He was recruited by North Melbourne Football Club, where he played both under-19s and reserve grade football. He transferred to Footscray in 1986 and, although he made his senior level debut in 1986, he mainly played in the reserves that season, winning the VFL reserves' Gardiner Medal in both 1986 and 1988.^[3]

Standing at 163 cm, Liberatore played only 18 senior games until the 1990 season, when he played 19 games and won the Brownlow Medal for the best and fairest senior AFL player.^{[citation needed]}

Liberatore played a total of 283 senior games for Footscray/Western Bulldogs in a career that included 13 finals, life membership of the club, and selection on the interchange bench in the club's Team of the Century.^{[citation needed]}

Liberatore was noted for his high tackle count. Throughout his senior career, he made 1,225 tackles in his career^Note; an average of 4.39 per game. In 1992 he became the first VFL/AFL player to exceed 100 tackles in a season,^{[citation needed]} and then exceeded 100 tackles each season until 1996.^[4][5][6][7] His season tally of 142 tackles in 1994 stood as the VFL/AFL record until 2006, when James McDonald bettered it by one.^[8] At times during his career, Liberatore was criticised for his tackling style. Incidents involving players Paul Kelly, Steven Lawrence and Matthew Knights were widely discussed, reported and were the focus of particular criticism in the media.^{[citation needed]}

Coaching career

Liberatore coached the Box Hill Hawks in the Victorian Football League in 2003, taking them to the Grand Final. Between 2003 to 2007, he held an assistant coaching position at the Carlton Football Club and in 2008, he was the senior coach of the Sunbury Lions Football Club in the Ballarat Football League. In 2009, he became the senior coach of the West Footscary Roosters, a team playing in the Melbourne suburban Western Region Football League.^[9]

Family

Liberatore's son, Tom Liberatore, represented Victoria at under 16 level in 2008^[10] and was selected as a father-son selection at the 2010 AFL Draft.^{[citation needed]}

Footnotes

1.^ The true number of tackles is likely slightly higher than 1225, as tackle statistics were not recorded during 1986, in which Liberatore played the first four of his 263 games.

References

External links

• Western Bulldogs player profile – Tony Liberatore
• Tony Liberatore's statistics from AFL Tables