Troy Simmonds (born 13 July 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Melbourne, Fremantle and Richmond in the Australian Football League.
AFL career
Melbourne: 1999 – 2001
Simmonds was first drafted by Melbourne in the 1999 pre-season draft. He played only five 5 games in 1999 but then played 22 in 2000, including the Grand Final, during which he was carried from the field on a stretcher following a head-on charge by Essendon's Michael Long.[1]
Fremantle: 2002 – 2004
In 2002 he was traded to Fremantle as part of a three way trade that included Daniel Bandy moving to the Western Bulldogs and Craig Ellis moving to Melbourne.[2] This was seen as a chance for Simmonds to become Fremantle's main ruckman, as opposed to being Jeff White's understudy at Melbourne.[citation needed] In three seasons at Fremantle Simmonds played in 64 out of a possible 67 games, including Fremantle's first ever finals game in 2003.
Richmond: 2005 – 2010
At the end of the 2004 season, Simmonds was traded back to Victoria, again in a three-way deal, with Heath Black returning to Fremantle, Aaron Fiora moving to St Kilda and Simmonds moving to Richmond.[3] In a move surprising to many, Simmonds signed a five-year deal with the Tigers, as opposed to the usual two or three-year contracts.[4] After a serviceable first year with Richmond, Simmonds played some of the best football of his career in 2006 - taking several big marks and scoring several goals up forward.[citation needed] At the end of 2009 Simmonds signed a one-year contract for the 2010 season.[5] Prior to Round 10, 2010, Simmonds announced his retirement.[6]
References
- ^ Short, Paul (2 September 2000). "Essendon crash Melbourne's party". The Independent. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
- ^ Lovett, Michael, ed. (2002). AFL 2002. Melbourne, Victoria: AFL Publishing. p. 333. ISBN 0-9580300-0-6.
- ^ Greenberg, Tony (9 October 2012). "Top 20 Tiger trade pick-ups: No. 19". Richmond Football Club. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ Simmonds deserves more credit: Wallace; The Age; 16 February 2006
- ^ Smith, Patrick & Denham, Greg (3 July 2009) Sheedy's new pitch welcomed; The Australian
- ^ "Simmonds hangs up boots". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
External links
- Troy Simmonds's playing statistics from AFL Tables
- Troy Simmonds at AustralianFootball.com