Scott West

Scott West
Personal information
Date of birth	(1974-11-14) 14 November 1974
Place of birth	Swan Reach, South Australia
Original team	Strathmore
Debut	Round 1, 1993, Footscray v. Collingwood, at Melbourne Cricket Ground
Height/Weight	178 cm / 80 kg
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1993-2008	Western Bulldogs	324 (104)
1 Playing statistics correct to end of 2008 season.
Career highlights
7 club best-and-fairest awards (1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005) 5 All-Australian honours (1998, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006) Lou Richards Medal (2006) AFL Rising Star Nominee (1993) International Rules Series 1999, 2000 Top 5 in the Brownlow Medal: 2nd in 2000, 2006; 3rd in 1998; 4th in 2004, 2005

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.

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. In 2000 he was particularly unlucky. Going into the final round, he was level with Shane woewodin from Melbourne on 22 votes. Having had only 17 disposals and being interchanged for majority of the final quarter, Shane woewodin wasn't considered a chance to poll Against westcoast, however woewodin polled 2 votes and consequently Won the medal on 24 votes. Wests amazing brownlow record consists of third in 1999, second (by two votes) in 2000 and (by two 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 until an injury which he was struggling to recover from limited him to just 4 games in the 2008 season.

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. He quit after the 2013 season.^[2]

In 2013 West was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.^[3]

Statistics

^[4]

*10 games required to be eligible.

Media Profile

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

References

External links

• Scott West's profile on the official website of the Western Bulldogs
• Scott West's statistics from AFL Tables

Australian squad – 1999 International Rules Series Captain: Buckley Akermanis Allan Ashcroft Bell Burgoyne Burke Campbell Camporeale Cousins Crawford Croad Graham Hart Leppitsch McKay McRae Molloy O'Loughlin Richardson Silvagni Smith Waterhouse West Coach: Brereton

Australian squad – 2000 International Rules Series Captain: Hird Akermanis Blumfield Bradley Brown Campbell Caracella Croad Goodwin Hardwick Harvey Heffernan Johnson Kellaway D. King S. King Leppitsch McLeod O'Loughlin Power Ratten Ricciuto Smith West Woewodin Yze