Liam Shiels (born 29 April 1991) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and North Melbourne Football Club, in the Australian Football League (AFL). Shiels is a midfielder who developed into a key member of the midfield for Hawthorn that would win three premierships in a row from 2013 to 2015. Shiels would also serve as vice-captain for Hawthorn from 2017–2018.

AFL career

Shiels was a 2nd round selection in the 2008 AFL draft, being selected at No. 34 overall. He was the youngest player drafted that year. Shiels was still a high school student when he joined the Hawks; as a result, Hawthorn needed to obtain special dispensation from Shiels' high school in order to enable him to train during periods where training clashed with his afternoon classes.[1]

Not expected to play in his first year, Shiels was training part-time and completing his schooling at Aquinas College Melbourne but after performances playing for Box Hill, Shiels was promoted to play against Adelaide.[2] He played eleven games in his debut season.[citation needed]

Shiels and Josh Gibson were the only Hawthorn players to play every game in 2011.[3]

Shiels was made joint vice-captain of the club in 2017, together with Isaac Smith.[4] During Hawthorn's poor start to the 2017 season, Shiels instigated an assessment that the club was not playing satisfactorily.[5] In the preseason, Shiels was sent to the AFL tribunal for striking Darcy Lang, but was not suspended.[6] Shiels was widely regarded as having performed well as vice-captain and player during the 2017 season, registering a personal record for number of clearances per game.[7]

Liam Shiels was regarded as having another good season in 2018, recording the sixth highest number of tackles in the league and setting a new disposal average record.[8]

Shiels, along with Smith was replaced as Co-Vice-Captain prior to the 2019 season with Jack Gunston, though he remained part of the leadership group.[9] Shiels played his 200th game during that season, which was a 24-point victory over rivals Geelong.[10]

On August 31, 2022, Shiels announced his retirement after 14 seasons, 255 games & 3 premierships with the Hawks.[11] His retirement didn't last long though, as on the 22nd November 2022, he came out of retirement to play for North Melbourne as a rookie listed player, reuniting with coach Alistair Clarkson.[12]

Statistics

Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
  #  
 Played in that season's 
premiership team
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
2009 Hawthorn 26 11 1 3 65 85 150 25 49 0.1 0.3 5.9 7.7 13.6 2.3 4.5 0
2010 Hawthorn 26 6 0 0 37 27 64 25 26 0.0 0.0 6.2 4.5 10.7 4.2 4.3 0
2011 Hawthorn 26 25 11 14 344 221 565 138 150 0.4 0.6 13.8 8.8 22.6 5.5 6.0 0
2012 Hawthorn 26 22 7 7 243 177 420 74 106 0.3 0.3 11.0 8.0 19.1 3.4 4.8 1
2013# Hawthorn 26 17 3 8 164 96 260 61 54 0.2 0.5 9.6 5.6 15.3 3.6 3.2 0
2014# Hawthorn 26 21 8 11 292 184 476 79 129 0.4 0.5 13.9 8.8 22.7 3.8 6.1 7
2015# Hawthorn 26 22 13 9 248 229 477 79 162 0.6 0.4 11.3 10.4 21.7 3.6 7.4 5
2016 Hawthorn 26 18 4 8 191 124 315 41 153 0.2 0.4 10.6 6.9 17.5 2.3 8.5 0
2017 Hawthorn 26 21 9 10 239 216 455 76 129 0.4 0.5 11.4 10.3 21.7 3.6 6.1 5
2018 Hawthorn 26 23 9 3 332 200 532 85 149 0.4 0.1 14.4 8.7 23.1 3.7 6.5 8
2019 Hawthorn 26 19 10 12 249 192 441 65 126 0.5 0.6 13.1 10.1 23.2 3.4 6.6 5
2020[a] Hawthorn 26 16 6 0 162 124 286 46 55 0.4 0.0 10.1 7.8 17.9 2.9 3.4 1
2021 Hawthorn 26 21 5 4 244 200 444 93 99 0.2 0.2 11.6 9.5 21.1 4.4 4.7 0
2022 Hawthorn 26 13 4 4 84 62 146 32 39 0.3 0.3 6.5 4.8 11.2 2.5 3.0 0
2023 North Melbourne 14 16 3 3 139 144 283 66 88 0.2 0.2 8.7 9.0 17.7 4.1 5.5 0
2024 North Melbourne 14 17 4 5 112 91 203 42 46 0.2 0.3 6.6 5.4 11.9 2.5 2.7
Career[13] 288 97 101 3145 2372 5517 1027 1560 0.3 0.4 10.9 8.2 19.2 3.6 5.4 32

Notes

  1. ^ The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Honours and achievements

Team

Individual

Cited references

  1. ^ Sebastiani, Paul. "Hawthorn hope to keep Shaun Burgoyne despite Suns' interest". The Australian. News Corp. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Shiels next Hawk to fly - Official AFL Website of the Hawthorn Football Club". Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  3. ^ Allsop, Richard (7 September 2011). "Qualifying Final Footy Flashbacks". Australian Football League. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Hawks Liam Shiels learns leadership ropes". 13 February 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  5. ^ Niall, Jake (18 April 2017). "'Just not good enough': Hawthorn vice-captain Liam Shiels' brutal assessment of club's 0-4 start". Fox Sports. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  6. ^ Australian Associated Press (20 February 2017). "Liam Shiels cleared after stray elbow, Jack Frost suspended". ESPN. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  7. ^ Paine, Jackson (5 September 2017). "Season review: Liam Shiels". Hawthorn Football Club. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  8. ^ "Season snapshot: Liam Shiels". Hawthorn Football Club. 16 November 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  9. ^ Kennett, Jeff (28 February 2019). "Letter to members: Our captain". Hawthorn Football Club. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  10. ^ "Hawthorn beats Geelong by 24 points at the MCG, the Saints down the Bulldogs and West Coast beats Melbourne". ABC News. 21 July 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  11. ^ Staff Writer (1 September 2022). "'It's been a great journey': Three-time premiership Hawk says farewell". AFL. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  12. ^ Twomey, Callum (22 November 2022). "Three-time premiership Hawk set to come out of retirement". AFL. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  13. ^ Liam Shiels' player profile at AFL Tables
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Shiels
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