Kevin Coverdale is a former Australian rules football

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 who played with Hawthorn

Hawthorn Football Club

The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...

 in the Victorian 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...

 (VFL).

Coverdale first joined Hawthorn in 1959 and played VFL reserves football before returning to Bairnsdale due to work commitments. He also had the misfortune of being injured in two separate car accidents during his early career. Nevertheless he won the Gippsland Football League's "Best and Fairest" award in 1961, following a strong season with Bairnsdale.

He was cleared to Hawthorn for the 1963 season and would kick 21 goals from his 20 senior games that year. A centre half forward, he appeared for Hawthorn in the 1963 VFL Grand Final

1963 VFL Grand Final

The 1963 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 5 October 1963. It was the 67th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the...

, which they lost. After playing two more seasons he left Melbourne and rejoined Bairnsdale, who he would captain.