Matthew Lappin

Matthew Lappin (born 17 February 1976) is a retired Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was an assistant coach with the Carlton Football Club from 2007–2010, deciding not to renew his contract for 2011.

Debuting with the St Kilda Football Club in 1994, Lappin was known as a solid running half-back flanker.

Lappin played in 17 of 22 matches in the 1997 AFL Premiership Season home and away rounds in which St Kilda Football Club qualified in first position for the 1997 AFL Finals Series, winning the club’s 2nd Minor Premiership and 1st McClelland Trophy.^[1]

At the end of the 1998 season, after five seasons with the Saints (including the 1997 Grand Final), he moved to Carlton. He made an immediate impression: in the first quarter of the club's Round 1 match against Essendon, he took a specky on the goal-line which would go on to win the Mark of the Year for 1999.

At Carlton, Lappin established himself in a variety of roles. Initially he played as a goalsneak, but shifted into a sweeping half-back, or linkman role, providing much of Carlton's rebound football as they rebuilt their backline in the early-mid-2000s; he would also rotate sparingly through the midfield.

In 2004 he won All-Australian selection and was consistently among Carlton's best players, but in 2005 he did not have a great year for the Blues, which led to him considering walking out on the club. His form continued to slide in 2006, and after a particularly poor game against the Western Bulldogs coloured by some soft efforts, Lappin was dropped to Carlton's VFL-affiliate, the Northern Bullants. He played two games there and improved his intensity; he averaged 29 disposals and 3.5 tackles in the four games after his return. Lappin moved primarily back into the forward line in 2007 with reasonable success. Following an injury, Lappin announced his retirement shortly before Carlton's final game of 2007, four games short of playing 200 games for the club.

Throughout his playing career, Lappin was easily recognised on the field with his lightly built frame, for which he attracted the nickname "Skinny". He was a great mark, regularly outmarking players much bigger than him. Lappin also represented Australia in the International Rules series in three seasons, and was noted for kicking the round ball better than most of his teammates.

Following his retirement from playing, Lappin remained with the Carlton Football Club as an assistant coach, as well as acting as a playing assistant coach with the Northern Bullants (as a VFL-listed player). He served as Carlton's forward line coach from 2008 until 2010. In 2011, he shifted into an assistant coaching role at Collingwood.^[2]

References

External links

• Matthew Lappin's statistics from AFL Tables
• Matthew Lappin Profile in Blueseum

Australian squad – 2001 International Rules Series Captain: Voss Black Bowden Bradley Caracella Chick Francou Gaspar Goodes Goodwin Hardwick Harvey Hay Johnson King M. Lappin N. Lappin Lloyd Maxfield McLeod Nicks Ottens Ramanauskas Smith Stevens Tredrea White Coach: Lyon

Australian squad – 2006 International Rules Series Captains: Fletcher & Hall Bateman Brown Crowley Davey Davis Fevola Fisher Gilbee Goddard Johncock Lappin McDonald Mundy O'Keefe Peake Pearce Raines Schneider Selwood Sherman Simpson Stanton Voss Coach: Sheedy