Nathan Fyfe

Nathan Fyfe

Fyfe playing against Geelong in round 9, 2014
Personal information
Full name Nathan Fyfe
Date of birth (1991-09-18) 18 September 1991
Original team(s) Claremont (WAFL)
Draft No. 20, 2009 national draft
Height / weight 191 cm / 91 kg
Position(s) Midfielder / Forward
Club information
Current club Fremantle
Number 7
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2010– Fremantle 136 (118)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of round 21, 2017.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Nathan "Nat" Fyfe (born 18 September 1991) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Fyfe won the game's highest individual honour, the Brownlow Medal, in 2015, and is a dual Leigh Matthews Trophy recipient, a dual Doig Medallist, and a dual All-Australian. He has served as Fremantle captain since the 2017 season.

Early life

Fyfe grew up in Lake Grace, Western Australia, and went to school at Aquinas College in Perth. In 2009, he played West Australian Football League colts for Claremont, his highlights of the season being his eight-goal, 34 possession effort against East Fremantle[1] and six goals in the Colts Grand Final. In 2010, he made his league debut, kicking 4 goals against Peel Thunder.[2]

He was also selected for Western Australia in the 2009 AFL National Under 18 Championships and played four of the five games, kicking nine goals. His best return came in the game against Vic Metro in which he scored four goals.[3]

AFL career

Fyfe was selected by Fremantle with the 20th pick in the 2009 national draft. He made his debut in Fremantle's 39-point win over the Richmond Tigers in the annual Len Hall ANZAC Day game at Subiaco Oval in 2010.[4] In doing so, he became the 150th player to represent the Fremantle Dockers at AFL level.[5] He was awarded the AFL Rising Star nomination for Round 9 in the 2010 AFL season after performing well in Fremantle's first victory over the Sydney Swans in Sydney since 1996.[6] He collected 23 possessions, four clearances, five tackles and seven marks and played on senior Sydney player Ryan O'Keefe for most of the game.[7]

In 2011, Fyfe improved further and in July signed a contract extension to remain at Fremantle until the end of the 2014 season. His form led him to be considered as a potential All-Australian team selection, Doig Medal chance and gained comparisons to past champion James Hird. Fyfe polled an equal team high 13 Brownlow Medal votes, finished runner-up in the Doig Medal and was selected in the initial All-Australian squad of 40 but did not make the final team.[8][9]

Fyfe made a strong start to the 2012 season with a best-on-ground performance against Geelong in the Round 1 match at Patersons Stadium, collecting 30 disposals and 2 goals in the 4-point win over the Cats.[10] In April, he suffered a recurrence to his shoulder injury and, after attempting to play for a few weeks, underwent surgery in May after dislocating it at training.[11] He returned to Fremantle in Round 18 against Port Adelaide—despite temporarily missing a game against Adelaide in Round 20 due to an ankle injury incurred on the morning of the match in his hotel room.[12] Despite only playing eight games in 2012, Fyfe finished 12th in the Brownlow Medal.

Fyfe continued to play well throughout the 2013 season and was awarded Fremantle's club champion award, the Doig Medal.[13] Fyfe also helped lead Fremantle to their first ever AFL Grand Final appearance in 2013, but despite Fyfe having an equal game-high 28 disposals in the match, the Dockers were defeated by Hawthorn by 15 points (77 to 62), ending the club's best season in their 19-year history just short of their first premiership success.[14]

Fyfe announced early in 2014 that he would not consider extending his contract with Fremantle until later in the year, leading to speculation that he might change clubs when his contract expired at the end of the season.[15] However, he agreed to extend his contract with Fremantle for a further three years in late June.[16]

Fyfe started the 2014 season strongly, but was controversially suspended for two weeks in Round 2 for a bump on Gold Coast player Michael Rischitelli. He was one of the first players to be suspended under a new rule that penalised the player for any head contact as a result of choosing to bump instead of tackle. Throughout the year, he was considered to be one of the favourites to win the Brownlow Medal but was ineligible due to the suspension.[17] Fyfe continued his strong form for the remainder of the season averaging 27 disposals a game and was considered to be one of the elite midfielders in the league.[18] He was suspended again late in the season for a behind the play strike on Jordan Lewis, missing the final two matches before returning for the finals.

At the 2014 AFL Players Association awards, Fyfe was awarded the Leigh Matthews Trophy as the league's most valuable player (MVP). Fyfe polled 945 votes, ahead of five-time winner Gary Ablett with 787 votes.[19] He received the award again in 2015, polling 1455 votes, finishing ahead of Todd Goldstein who polled 578 votes.[20]

In 2015, after playing in the losing preliminary final against Hawthorn with a fractured leg just two days earlier, Fyfe was awarded the Brownlow Medal, polling 31 votes, whilst collecting 29 votes from Rounds 2 to 14. He became the first Brownlow Medal winner from Fremantle and polled three votes ahead of the previous winner, Matt Priddis.[21] To round out the 2015 season, Fyfe was named the WA Media Awards AFL Player of the Year[22] and the WA Sports Star of the Year.[23]

In 2016, after a slow start to the season, Fyfe suffered another fracture to the same leg in Round 5.[24] He had a plate inserted into the leg, and in May 2016, following medical advice, Fremantle opted to have the plate removed once the bone had healed, ruling Fyfe out for the remainder of the season.[25] Without Fyfe, Fremantle dropped from minor premiers in 2015 to 16th in 2016.

In February 2017, he was announced as Fremantle's captain.[26] In July 2017, Fyfe signed a six-year contract extension with Fremantle – the longest contract extension in the club's history – tying him to the Dockers until 2023.[27]

Statistics

Statistics are correct to the end of round 20, 2017.[28]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
Season Team # Games G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
Totals Averages (per game)
2010 Fremantle 13 18 14 14 173 117 290 82 54 0.8 0.8 9.6 6.5 16.1 4.6 3.0
2011 Fremantle 7 21 18 14 253 274 527 111 85 0.9 0.7 12.0 13.0 25.1 5.3 4.0
2012 Fremantle 7 11 4 3 157 100 257 44 41 0.4 0.3 14.3 9.1 23.4 4.0 3.7
2013 Fremantle 7 22 18 13 339 230 569 98 74 0.8 0.6 15.4 10.4 25.9 4.4 3.4
2014 Fremantle 7 20 24 10 260 279 539 79 94 1.2 0.5 13.0 14.0 27.0 4.0 4.7
2015 Fremantle 7 20 17 14 275 301 576 84 86 0.8 0.7 13.8 15.0 28.8 4.2 4.3
2016 Fremantle 7 5 9 2 47 70 117 21 26 1.8 0.4 9.4 14.0 23.4 4.2 5.2
2017 Fremantle 7 19 14 12 213 288 501 89 88 0.7 0.6 11.2 15.2 26.4 4.7 4.6
Career 136 118 82 1717 1660 3377 606 548 0.9 0.6 12.6 12.2 24.8 4.5 4.0

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
2010 5
2011 13
2012 14
2013 18
2014 25
2015 31
2016 4
Total 110
Key:
Green / Bold = Won
* = joint winner
Red / Italics = Ineligible

References

  1. ↑ Casellas, Ken (13 August 2009). "High Marking Fyfe Steals The Show". Archived from the original on 21 February 2011.
  2. ↑ Casellas, Ken (25 March 2010). "League: Derickx and Fyfe in Fine Debuts". Archived from the original on 18 February 2011.
  3. ↑ Clarke, Tim; Next Big Thing Stands Up As Metro Falls
  4. ↑ Schmook, Nathan; Fremantle Cruises back into Top 4
  5. ↑ Clarke, Tim; High Fyfe For Another Dockers Debutant
  6. ↑ Flying Fyfe lands Rising Star nod
  7. ↑ Fyfe star rising as veteran shut out
  8. ↑ Fyfe inks new deal
  9. ↑ Fyfe inks new Freo deal
  10. ↑ Miller, Dale (31 March 2012). "Lyon's pride! Dockers win thriller as Cats lose cool". The West Australian. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  11. ↑ White, Simon (1 May 2012). "Dockers schedule knife for Fyfe".
  12. ↑ Porter, Ashley (12 August 2012). "Mystery of a rolled ankle".
  13. ↑ Kastanis, Costa (17 November 2013). "Fyfe wins the Doig Medal".
  14. ↑ "Grand revenge: Hawthorn makes up for 2012 loss". AFL.com.au. Bigpond. 28 September 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  15. ↑ Pierik, Jon (19 May 2014). "Off-contract Nat Fyfe open to leaving Dockers".
  16. ↑ Quartermaine, Braden; Robinson, Chris (26 June 2014). "Fremantle Dockers midfielder Nat Fyfe signs three-year extension".
  17. ↑ Murnane, Matt (15 June 2014). "AFL has gone soft on bump: Fyfe".
  18. ↑ Robinson, Mark (11 June 2014). "Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson names his mid-year All-Australian team".
  19. ↑ Clark, Jay (10 September 2014). "Nat Fyfe crowned AFL’s most valuable player after brilliant season with Fremantle Dockers".
  20. ↑ "Fyfe goes back-to-back as the AFLPA's Most Valuable Player". AFL.com.au. Bigpond. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  21. ↑ Twomey, Callum (28 September 2015). "Fremantle's Nat Fyfe wins 2015 Brownlow Medal". AFL.com.au. Bigpond. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  22. ↑ Dobson, John (10 November 2015). "Fyfe lands another award". FremantleFC.com.au. Bigpond. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  23. ↑ Miller, Dale (7 December 2015). "Fyfe adds WA Sportstar to list of honours". The West Australian. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  24. ↑ Schmook, Nathan (25 April 2016). "Bad break for Fremantle as Fyfe fractures leg". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  25. ↑ Malcolm, Alex (13 May 2016). "Dockers rule out Fyfe for the rest of the year". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  26. ↑ Robinson, Chris (14 February 2017). "Nat Fyfe named Fremantle Dockers captain for 2017, taking over from David Mundy". The West Australian. Seven West Media. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  27. ↑ King, Travis; Bowen, Nick (17 July 2017). "Fyfe for life: Freo superstar signs monster long-term deal". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  28. ↑ "Nat Fyfe". AFL Tables. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
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