Malcolm Blight

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Malcolm Blight

Personal Info
Birth	February 16, 1950,
Recruited from	Woodville
Height/Weight	192cm / 97kg
Playing Career¹
Debut	Round 1, 1974, North Melbourne vs. Collingwood, at Arden Street Oval
Team(s)	North Melbourne 179 games, 444 goals Woodville 163 games, 359 goals
Coaching Career¹
Team(s)	North Melbourne 13 Games - 6 Wins, 7 Losses Geelong Cats 112 Games - 81 Wins, 30 Losses, 1 Draw Adelaide Crows 66 Games - 51 Wins, 15 Losses St Kilda Saints 13 Games - 4 Wins, 9 Losses
¹ Statistics to end of 2001 season
Career Highlights
Magarey Medal 1972 Ken Farmer Medal 1985 Coleman Medal 1982 Brownlow Medal 1978 Syd Barker Medal 1978 North Melbourne Premiership Side 1975, 1977 Adelaide Premiership Coach 1997, 1998 Geelong Grand Final Coach 1989, 1992, 1994 Victorian representative player 7 Times Victorian Captain 2 Times South Australian representative 7 North Melbourne Leading Goalkicker 4 Times Woodville Best and Fairest 1972, 1983 Adelaide Best and Fairest named after him (Malcolm Blight Medal)

Malcolm Blight AM (born 16 February 1950) is a former Australian rules football player who had a Hall of Fame career with the Woodville Football Club and the North Melbourne Football Club and coached the Adelaide Crows to two Premierships in 1997 & 1998.

Contents 1 Football career 1.1 SANFL 1.2 VFL 2 Post playing career 2.1 Coaching career 2.2 Recognition 2.3 Commentator 3 References

[edit] Football career

[edit] SANFL

Malcolm Blight began his career in 1968 at the Woodville Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He won the Best and Fairest award with Woodville in 1972 and the Magarey Medal the same year as the league's "fairest and most brilliant".

After his stint in the VFL, Blight finished his playing career in the SANFL, as playing coach of Woodville Football Club from 1983 to 1985. He was club best and fairest in 1983 and topped the league goalkicking list in 1985, kicking 126 goals.

He was the first player to win both the Magarey Medal and Brownlow Medals, the only player to top both the SANFL and VFL goalkicking lists, and the only player to captain both Victorian and South Australian representative sides.

[edit] VFL

He was recruited by the Kangaroos and played 179 games for them between 1974 and 1982. He was a member of the Kangaroos' premiership sides in 1975 and 1977, and in 1978 won both the Brownlow Medal and the Syd Barker Medal for being the best and fairest player in the VFL and for North Melbourne respectively.

Blight was a prolific goalkicker, known for his long goals and ability to kick the torpedo punt, finishing with 444 goals for his career. In 1982, Blight won the Coleman Medal for leading the VFL in goalkicking, and led the Kangaroos' goalkicking four times during his career.

Famously on one occasion, Blight ran past an open goal to inadvertently kick a behind. This moment was referenced in a recent television commercial, which actually featured Blight. However the commercial was in fact re-creating a moment that has since passed into Australian Rules folklore. In a match against Carlton, Blight was left with a kick estimated to be 80 metres from goal to win the game, a distance considered impossible even today. Many assumed Blight's effort to be pointless, including spectators who were already entering the playing arena. However Blight unleashed one of the biggest kicks ever to send the ball through the goals and seal an improbable victory for North Melbourne.

[edit] Post playing career

[edit] Coaching career

Blight later became a successful coach in the Australian Football League (AFL). He coached the following clubs:

• North Melbourne (playing coach) in 1981. (Sacked after 16 games).
• Woodville in the SANFL 1983-1987. (Playing coach 1983-1985).
• Geelong from 1989 to 1994. (Losing Grand Finals in 1989, 1992, 1994).
• Adelaide from 1997 to 1999. (AFL premierships in 1997 and 1998).
• St Kilda in 2001. (Sacked partway through the season).

Despite a relatively brief career with the Crows, as their only premiership coach he is a key figure in their short history, and Blight was honoured with having Adelaide's Best and Fairest award named after him - the Malcolm Blight Medal.

[edit] Recognition

In 1996, Malcolm Blight was inducted to the Australian Football Hall of Fame, and inducted into North Melbourne's Hall of Fame in 2003. He was named to a half-forward flank on the North Melbourne Team of the Century, and for his play at the Woodville Football Club, he was named as a half-forward flank on the South Australian Team of the Century.In 1987 Blight was given life membership at the Woodville Football Club and was later honoured by being named a Life Governor of the Woodville West-Torrens Football Club along with other South Australian greats Lindsay Head, Bob Hank, Andrew Payze, Fred Bills and Andrew Rogers. On March 19, 2005, Blight was named as North Melbourne's best player of the 1970s at The North Story.

[edit] Commentator

Blight is currently an expert commentator on Channel Ten's television coverage after previously being a commentator with Channel Seven in 1995 and 1996.

[edit] References

• Ross, John (1999). The Australian Football Hall of Fame. Australia: HarperCollinsPublishers, p. 41. ISBN 0-7322-6426-X. 
• AFL: Hall of Fame
• SANFL Hall of Fame

Preceded by Graeme Teasdale	Brownlow Medallist 1978	Succeeded by Peter Moore
Preceded by Michael Roach	Coleman Medallist 1982	Succeeded by Bernie Quinlan
Preceded by Robert Shaw	Adelaide Football Club coach 1997-1999	Succeeded by Gary Ayres
Preceded by Tim Watson	St Kilda Football Club coach 2001	Succeeded by Grant Thomas