West Coast Eagles Wiki
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Andrew Donnelly
Photo: aflphotos.com
DOB
29/3/1973
Height
190cm
Weight
90 kg
Junior club
Arrived
Pick 13 in the 1996 pre-season draft
Number
Debut
Round 1 1996 vs Fremantle – 96th Eagles player
Games
68
Goals
69
Honours
B&F Top 10
2 (1996, 2000)
Best Finish
8th (1996)
Last app.
Round 22 2000 vs Melbourne
Departed
Retired at the end of the 2001 season
Other clubs
Subiaco (WAFL) 1992-1993,
1995-2001
Sydney (AFL) 1994

A strong-bodied forward, Donnelly had a great first season as a mature-age recruit and played 68 games in six years on the list.

Sydney career[]

Hailing from Subiaco, Andrew Donnelly was drafted by Sydney in 1992 and spent two seasons on the Swans’ list without playing an AFL game – he stayed in WA for the 1993 season and played reserves for Sydney in 1994.

West Coast career[]

Donnelly trained with Fremantle in the lead-up to their entry to the AFL but did not make their final squad.[1] Returning to the Lions, Donnelly won their best and fairest in 1995 and played in the losing grand final side, which was enough for West Coast to snap him up as a mature-age recruit in the 1996 pre-season draft.

Donnelly had an instant impact at AFL level, playing 20 games and kicking 28 goals for the year and helping to fill the void left by an out-of-form Peter Sumich. Donnelly’s performances in his debut season included a 25-touch, 4-goal game against the Demons and a 5-goal haul at the Gabba, and saw him win the club’s Rising Star award ahead of a couple of other well-performed youngsters like Chad Morrison and a bloke named Cousins, as well as finishing in the top ten in the Club Champion award.

Donnelly never quite hit the same heights again. He played just 10 games in 1997 and spent a bit of time back at Subiaco. 1998 was a little better, although injuries limited him to just 13 games he still managed to equal his career high with 5 goals in a narrow loss to the Saints. In 1999 he spent the first part of the year with the Lions before breaking into the senior side and playing the back half of the season and the finals series.

2000 was a similar story, although Donnelly managed 14 senior games and 15 goals, his highest tallies since his debut season, and kicked 6 goals in a fortnight against the Saints and Sydney late in the season. He battled a series of leg injuries throughout 2001 and was unable to break into the side, and announced his retirement from AFL and WAFL footy at the end of the year.

Post-AFL career[]

Donnelly went on to become the CEO of a national insurance brokering company which he founded while still playing for West Coast.

Stats[]

AFL Gm G B K M H D T Cl WAFL Gm G
1996 20 28 16 187 118 97 284 36 Subi 2 1
1997 10 8 4 74 44 31 105 7 7 8
1998 13 12 10 88 55 55 143 13 5 2 5
1999 11 6 4 84 47 68 152 6 7 12 21
2000 14 15 4 116 65 84 200 11 15 5 13
2001 0 5 1
Tot 68 69 38 549 329 335 884 73 27
Avg 1.0 8.1 4.8 4.9 13.0 1.1 0.7

References[]

http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/A/Andrew_Donnelly.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Donnelly

http://www.wafl.com.au/players/view/37

  1. Greg Denham, The Age (9 Aug 1996, p.C10), "Feathering the Eagles' new nest"
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