Gerard Healy

Gerard Healy
Personal information
Date of birth1 March 1961
Original teamEdithvale-Aspendale
Playing career1
YearsClubGames (Goals)
1979–1985
1986–1990
Total -		Melbourne
Sydney Swans		130 (189)
81 (87)
211 (276)
Representative team honours
YearsTeamGames (Goals)
Victoria
1 Playing statistics correct to end of 1990 season.
Career highlights

Gerard Healy (born 1 March 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer and commentator.[1] Healy attended St Bede's College in Mentone, where he was the senior football captain.

VFL career

Melbourne Demons

Beginning his career with the Melbourne Football Club in 1979, Healy played mostly in a forward pocket role in attack before switching to an on-baller/midfielder role and establishing himself as one of the premier ball winners in the competition. He won Melbourne's best and fairest award in 1984.

Sydney Swans

He left the Demons in 1985, after playing 121 games, moving to the Sydney Swans at the beginning of the 1986 season. He immediately made an impact at the Swans, winning best and fairests in his first three years with the team – 1986, 1987, 1988. Season 1988 was to prove the finest of his career. In addition to the Swans' Best & Fairest award, Healy took home the Brownlow Medal as the VFL's fairest and best player, the VFL Players Association MVP and the Simpson Medal for best on ground in the Victoria vs Western Australia state game played in Perth. He retired from Sydney in 1991 due to a serious wrist injury. He was later recognised as one of Sydney's greats, being named in their Team of the Century. Following his forced retirement Collingwood picked Healy in the 1991 Pre-Season Draft on the chance that his injury would recover but Healy never played another AFL match.

In 2000 Healy was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. On 18 July 2009, he was also inducted into the Sydney Swans Hall of Fame.

Playing Statistics

[2]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
Led the league for the Season only*
Led the league after finals only*
Led the league after Season and Finals*

*10 games required to be eligible.

Season Team # Games G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
Totals Averages (per game)
1979 Melbourne 39 21 10 19 244 71 315 55 - 0.5 0.9 11.6 3.4 15.0 2.6 -
1980 Melbourne 39 7 4 9 123 52 175 36 - 0.6 1.3 17.6 7.4 25.0 5.1 -
1981 Melbourne 39 22 27 14 295 157 452 92 - 1.2 0.6 13.4 7.1 20.5 4.2 -
1982 Melbourne 3 21 77 55 263 89 352 99 - 3.7 2.6 12.5 4.2 16.8 4.7 -
1983 Melbourne 3 19 37 41 198 72 270 98 - 1.9 2.2 10.4 3.8 14.2 5.2 -
1984 Melbourne 3 20 19 25 304 133 437 81 - 1.0 1.3 15.2 6.7 21.9 4.1 -
1985 Melbourne 3 20 15 18 301 125 426 84 - 0.8 0.9 15.1 6.3 21.3 4.2 -
1986 Sydney 3 22 26 21 344 212 556 82 - 1.2 1.0 15.6 9.6 25.3 3.7 -
1987 Sydney 3 20 22 18 302 185 487 65 37 1.1 0.9 15.1 9.3 24.4 3.3 1.9
1988 Sydney 3 20 26 34 351 218 569 89 25 1.3 1.7 17.6 10.9 28.5 4.5 1.3
1989 Sydney 3 8 6 4 150 64 214 22 9 0.8 0.5 18.8 8.0 26.8 2.8 1.1
1990 Sydney 3 11 7 12 212 100 312 37 12 0.6 1.1 19.3 9.1 28.4 3.4 1.1
Career 211 276 270 3087 1478 4565 840 83 1.3 1.3 14.6 7.0 21.6 4.0 1.4

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
1979 —
1980 1
1981 —
1982 2
1983 1
1984 2
1985 8
1986 7
1987 9
1988 20
1989 2
1990 1
Total 53
Key:
Green / Bold = Won

Commentating career

After retiring, Healy became an Australian rules football commentator, first with the Seven Network on their AFL coverage.

On radio, he has also been a long-time special comments man on 3AW for their AFL coverage, as well as hosting Sports Today. He gave a heartfelt farewell message on the show to his co-host David Hookes after his death in 2004. Hookes was later replaced on the show by Dwayne Russell.

His audio commentary also has been sampled for computer games, such as AFL 2007 along with Dennis Cometti.

Healy worked as a special commentator (or game analyst) for Fox Footy from 2002 until its closure in 2006 as well as hosting On the Couch. He continued his commentary role for AFL matches with Fox Sports from 2007.

Personal life

Gerard Healy is married to lisa (gluyas) and together they have three daughters, bridget , born 1990, Annabel , born 1992, and lou lou, born 1997

References

  1. ↑ Carbone, Suzanne (20 January 2004). "Station shocked as one of its 'family' is the story – www.theage.com.au". Melbourne: theage.com.au. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  2. ↑ Gerard Healy's player profile at AFL Tables