Des Headland
Encyclopedia
Desmond "Des" Headland, Jr (born 21 January 1981) is an Australian rules football
er currently playing for Subiaco
in the West Australian Football League
. He plays as a half-forward flanker or midfielder. Headland was selected with the first overall draft pick in the 1998 AFL Draft
by the Brisbane Lions
. He had a 166 game Australian Football League
career, playing for Brisbane and Fremantle
.
and Brett Johnson. In 1997 Headland represented Western Australia (WA) at the under 16 national championships and won the best and fairest medal and was selected in the All-Australian team. In 1998 he represented WA in the AFL National Under 18 Championships
, made his league debut for Subiaco Football Club
and won both the WAFL
rising star and the Subiaco best and fairest award. He also toured Ireland with the AFL/AIS Academy side.
At the end of this outstanding season, Headland was selected by Brisbane Lions
with the first selection in the 1998 AFL Draft
. He was featured along with Adam Ramanauskas
and Brendan Fevola
in an ABC
television documentary called The Draft, which followed the three players in the months before they were all drafted to the AFL.
In 2001, Headland was given the number 1 guernsey when Richard Champion
retired. After playing the first game of the season, Headland was dropped for the next two games, before being recalled and playing the remaining 19 regular season games. Poor form in the last few rounds saw him dropped for the finals series and he missed the Brisbane Lions first premiership. This enhanced speculation about his return to Perth, but following an outstanding display in the Lion's reserve premiership in the QAFL, he was retained for the 2002 season by Brisbane.
2002 started slowly for Headland, with his first game not until round 6, but the four goals he scored was an indication of what was to come. He would play all remaining games that year, and in a 15 game purple patch from round 11 to the end of the year he would kick 30 goals, average 21 possessions and poll 16 Brownlow Medal
votes, including three best-on-grounds and votes in six consecutive games. This culminated in Brisbane's second premiership and unlike 2001, Headland claimed a premiership medal.
, Adam McPhee
and the exchanging of numerous draft picks saw Headland return to WA and join the team whose T-shirt he had worn during interviews at the 1998 draft camp (as shown in the documentary The Draft.) The expectations of the Fremantle fans were high, especially when McPhee, who was traded by Fremantle to obtain Headland, won All-Australian selection and the Bomber's best and fairest
award, the Crichton Medal in 2004.
In the lead up to the 2003 AFL season
Headland was chosen in an ATSIC Chairman's All-Star team that played Carlton
at Marrara Stadium, Darwin
. The All-Star team defeated Carlton by 73 points with Headland adjudged by The Age
as best on ground.
2003 saw Headland poll Brownlow Medal
votes in four games, including two best on ground performances. However, he failed to register a top-ten finish in the club best and fairest award, indicating that he wasn't a consistent performer. Leg injuries
including an ankle injury during the Wizard Cup
in 2004 and a calf strain in 2005 have limited his effectiveness and he has not been able to recapture the exceptional form that he showed at Brisbane in 2002 for any sustained period of time.
In Round 4, 2003, Headland was one of 7 indigenous players to represent Fremantle, the most ever to play in a single AFL team. The other indigenous players for Fremantle that day were Troy Cook
, Jeff Farmer
, Antoni Grover
, Roger Hayden
, Steven Koops
and Dion Woods
. This game also saw Fremantle score its highest ever score of 25.17 167 in a comprehensive defeat of the Kangaroos
.
In Round 8, 2003 in a match between St Kilda and Fremantle, Headland was one of four players who had been number one AFL Draft
selections and one of twenty first round selections.
player Adam Selwood
. Both appeared before the AFL Tribunal
on 18 April. Headland was charged with two counts of striking Selwood, and one count of wrestling with him, while Selwood was charged with using insulting language towards Headland. On 18 April, the tribunal found Selwood not guilty of using insulting language. It found Headland guilty of two of the three charges but elected not to impose a penalty.
Headland returned to the field the following week to be one of the best players for Fremantle against Melbourne, kicking 3 goals and collecting 29 disposals.
In late June 2007, Headland was involved in a fight in Northbridge
with a relative, only weeks after teammates Chris Tarrant
and Jeff Farmer
were suspended by Fremantle for being involved in other nightclub brawls. Headland was not sanctioned by the club.
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
er currently playing for Subiaco
Subiaco Football Club
The Subiaco Football Club, nicknamed the Lions, is an Australian rules football club in the West Australian Football League . It was founded in 1896, and admitted to the WAFL in 1901, along with North Fremantle...
in the West Australian Football League
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFL is the second-most popular in the state, behind the nation-wide Australian Football League...
. He plays as a half-forward flanker or midfielder. Headland was selected with the first overall draft pick in the 1998 AFL Draft
1998 AFL Draft
The 1998 AFL Draft consisted of a pre-season draft, a national draft, a trade period and a rookie elevation. The AFL Draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League.In 1998 there...
by the Brisbane Lions
Brisbane Lions
The Brisbane Lions is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Brisbane, Queensland. The club was formed from the merger of the Brisbane Bears and the Fitzroy Lions in 1996...
. He had a 166 game Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
career, playing for Brisbane and Fremantle
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia...
.
Pre-AFL Career
Headland played junior football for Karrinyup Junior Football Club. His school football was for Lockridge Senior High School where he played alongside future AFL player's Garth TaylorGarth Taylor
Garth Taylor is an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Dockers between 1999 and 2000. He was drafted from Swan Districts in the WAFL as the 49th selection in the 1998 AFL Draft and played mainly as a forward....
and Brett Johnson. In 1997 Headland represented Western Australia (WA) at the under 16 national championships and won the best and fairest medal and was selected in the All-Australian team. In 1998 he represented WA in the AFL National Under 18 Championships
AFL National Under 18 Championships
The NAB AFL Under 18 Championships are the annual national Australian rules football championships for players aged 18 years or younger. The competition is seen as one of the main pathways towards being drafted into a team in the fully professional Australian Football League...
, made his league debut for Subiaco Football Club
Subiaco Football Club
The Subiaco Football Club, nicknamed the Lions, is an Australian rules football club in the West Australian Football League . It was founded in 1896, and admitted to the WAFL in 1901, along with North Fremantle...
and won both the WAFL
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFL is the second-most popular in the state, behind the nation-wide Australian Football League...
rising star and the Subiaco best and fairest award. He also toured Ireland with the AFL/AIS Academy side.
At the end of this outstanding season, Headland was selected by Brisbane Lions
Brisbane Lions
The Brisbane Lions is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Brisbane, Queensland. The club was formed from the merger of the Brisbane Bears and the Fitzroy Lions in 1996...
with the first selection in the 1998 AFL Draft
1998 AFL Draft
The 1998 AFL Draft consisted of a pre-season draft, a national draft, a trade period and a rookie elevation. The AFL Draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League.In 1998 there...
. He was featured along with Adam Ramanauskas
Adam Ramanauskas
Adam Ramanauskas is a former Australian rules footballer for the Essendon Football Club.Of Lithuanian descent, Ramanauskas was selected at no. 12 in the 1998 AFL Draft and was mainly a defender or midfielder...
and Brendan Fevola
Brendan Fevola
Brendan Fevola is a professional Australian rules footballer. He played with the Carlton and Brisbane Lions football clubs in the Australian Football League....
in an ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
television documentary called The Draft, which followed the three players in the months before they were all drafted to the AFL.
Brisbane career
Headland only played 3 games for Brisbane in 1999, making his debut in round 13 against Sydney, in which he scored 2 goals. However, he only had 3 kicks in the following game and was dropped for the next five games until being recalled in round 20. He starred in this game against his future team, kicking 3 goals in a huge win over Fremantle. 2000 saw Headland only play 2 games in the first half of the season, but he ended up playing 9 games including both of Brisbane's final round games. He wore guernsey number 19 in these first two seasons.In 2001, Headland was given the number 1 guernsey when Richard Champion
Richard Champion
Richard Champion was a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League....
retired. After playing the first game of the season, Headland was dropped for the next two games, before being recalled and playing the remaining 19 regular season games. Poor form in the last few rounds saw him dropped for the finals series and he missed the Brisbane Lions first premiership. This enhanced speculation about his return to Perth, but following an outstanding display in the Lion's reserve premiership in the QAFL, he was retained for the 2002 season by Brisbane.
2002 started slowly for Headland, with his first game not until round 6, but the four goals he scored was an indication of what was to come. He would play all remaining games that year, and in a 15 game purple patch from round 11 to the end of the year he would kick 30 goals, average 21 possessions and poll 16 Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
votes, including three best-on-grounds and votes in six consecutive games. This culminated in Brisbane's second premiership and unlike 2001, Headland claimed a premiership medal.
Fremantle career
At the end of 2002, Fremantle entered the trade week with only one objective, to obtain Des Headland. A complex trade including Blake CaracellaBlake Caracella
Blake Caracella is a former Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League .-Essendon career:Selected by Essendon in the 1995 National Draft at pick 10, Caracella finally debuted with the Bombers in 1997...
, Adam McPhee
Adam McPhee
Adam McPhee is an Australian rules football football player who plays for the Fremantle Football Club and formerly for the Essendon Football Club. He is a versatile player who has played both as a forward and defender, and recently has also moved into a tagging role, with high profile clashes with...
and the exchanging of numerous draft picks saw Headland return to WA and join the team whose T-shirt he had worn during interviews at the 1998 draft camp (as shown in the documentary The Draft.) The expectations of the Fremantle fans were high, especially when McPhee, who was traded by Fremantle to obtain Headland, won All-Australian selection and the Bomber's best and fairest
Best and Fairest
Best and Fairest is the term commonly used in Australian sport to describe the player adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition while not receiving a suspension for misconduct or breaching the rules during that season.In the...
award, the Crichton Medal in 2004.
In the lead up to the 2003 AFL season
2003 AFL season
Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2003.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-National Cup:...
Headland was chosen in an ATSIC Chairman's All-Star team that played Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
at Marrara Stadium, Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
. The All-Star team defeated Carlton by 73 points with Headland adjudged by The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
as best on ground.
2003 saw Headland poll Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
votes in four games, including two best on ground performances. However, he failed to register a top-ten finish in the club best and fairest award, indicating that he wasn't a consistent performer. Leg injuries
Australian rules football injuries
Australian rules football is a sport known for its high level of physical body contact compared to other sports such as soccer and basketball. High impact collisions can occur from any direction, although deliberate collisions from front-on...
including an ankle injury during the Wizard Cup
Australian Football League pre-season competition
The Australian Football League pre-season competition, which is known at present as the NAB Cup, is a competition held before the beginning of the Australian Football League premiership season...
in 2004 and a calf strain in 2005 have limited his effectiveness and he has not been able to recapture the exceptional form that he showed at Brisbane in 2002 for any sustained period of time.
In Round 4, 2003, Headland was one of 7 indigenous players to represent Fremantle, the most ever to play in a single AFL team. The other indigenous players for Fremantle that day were Troy Cook
Troy Cook
Troy Cook is an Australian rules footballer. Cook plays for the Perth Football Club in the West Australian Football League.-Early career:...
, Jeff Farmer
Jeff Farmer (footballer)
Jeff Farmer is a former Australian rules footballer of Aboriginal descent. He was the first indigenous player to kick 400 goals in the Australian Football League .-Melbourne career:...
, Antoni Grover
Antoni Grover
Antoni Grover is a defender for the Fremantle Dockers. After being elevated from the rookie list in 1999, he made his debut in round 21 against the Sydney Swans...
, Roger Hayden
Roger Hayden
Roger Hayden is a former Australian rules footballer. He played as a back pocket for the Fremantle Football Club after beginning his senior football career with South Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League ....
, Steven Koops
Steven Koops
Steven John Koops is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club and Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League .-Early life:...
and Dion Woods
Dion Woods
Dion Woods is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle in the Australian Football League between 2001 and 2005....
. This game also saw Fremantle score its highest ever score of 25.17 167 in a comprehensive defeat of the Kangaroos
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
.
In Round 8, 2003 in a match between St Kilda and Fremantle, Headland was one of four players who had been number one AFL Draft
AFL Draft
The AFL Draft is the annual draft of new unsigned players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League.-History:...
selections and one of twenty first round selections.
Return to Subiaco
After being delisted by Fremantle, Headland rejoined his former WAFL team Subiaco for the 2011 WAFL season.Controversies
On 14 April 2007, Headland was involved in an altercation with West Coast EaglesWest Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...
player Adam Selwood
Adam Selwood
Adam Murray Selwood is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League.-Career:...
. Both appeared before the AFL Tribunal
AFL Tribunal
The AFL Tribunal is the disciplinary tribunal of the Australian Football League .-Points system:Source: AFL Tribunal 2011 Guidebook...
on 18 April. Headland was charged with two counts of striking Selwood, and one count of wrestling with him, while Selwood was charged with using insulting language towards Headland. On 18 April, the tribunal found Selwood not guilty of using insulting language. It found Headland guilty of two of the three charges but elected not to impose a penalty.
Headland returned to the field the following week to be one of the best players for Fremantle against Melbourne, kicking 3 goals and collecting 29 disposals.
In late June 2007, Headland was involved in a fight in Northbridge
Northbridge, Western Australia
Northbridge is an inner city suburb of Perth, Western Australia, separated from Perth's central business district by the Fremantle and Joondalup railway lines...
with a relative, only weeks after teammates Chris Tarrant
Chris Tarrant (footballer)
Chris Tarrant is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Collingwood Football Club, and has also played for the Fremantle Football Club. He announced at the end of the 2010 AFL season that he would return to Melbourne for personal reasons and would not extend his contract with Fremantle...
and Jeff Farmer
Jeff Farmer (footballer)
Jeff Farmer is a former Australian rules footballer of Aboriginal descent. He was the first indigenous player to kick 400 goals in the Australian Football League .-Melbourne career:...
were suspended by Fremantle for being involved in other nightclub brawls. Headland was not sanctioned by the club.