Earl Spalding

Earl Spalding (born 11 March 1965 in South Perth) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Melbourne and Carlton in the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL). He is known as "the Duke" or "Snake" because of his unusual running style, and also the "golf ball" in reference to his surname.

Earl Spalding
Personal information
Full name Earl George Spalding
Date of birth (1965-03-11) 11 March 1965
Place of birth Perth, Western Australia
Original team(s) Wesley College / Perth
Height 198 cm (6 ft 6 in)
Weight 110 kg (243 lb)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1987–1991 Melbourne 109 0(63)
1992–1997 Carlton 102 (106)
Total 211 (169)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1997.
Career highlights
  • Carlton premiership player 1995
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Spalding grew up in Perth, Western Australia, where he attended Wesley College. His father, George Spalding, was a well-known West Australian National Football League (WANFL) player with the Perth Football Club.

After leaving school, Spalding played for 63 games for Perth between 1983 and 1986, reaching the preliminary final in 1986. He also played four games of first-class cricket for Western Australia as a fast bowler, during the 1984/85 season, taking 12 wickets at an average of 25.66.[1]

He started his VFL/AFL career with Melbourne and was there from 1987 to 1991, playing 109 games. The following season he signed with Carlton and played 22 games for the year. He won a premiership with Carlton in 1995, and in 1996 brought up his 200th game of league football. He played his last senior AFL game in 1997. He then returned to Western Australia and switched to play for East Fremantle alongside his brother Scott, who played one game for Carlton in 1993. Earl played 32 games over the next two seasons, including their 1998 WAFL Premiership winning team,[2] retiring after the 1999 season having played 314 senior games of football in the WAFL and AFL.[3]

Spalding was the reserves and assistant coach at East Fremantle in 2000 before becoming the league coach in 2001. He resigned from the position at the end of the 2002 season,[4] and since then has working with the Fremantle Football Club as an assistant coach.

Spalding was appointed senior coach of the Perth "Demons" Football Club in 2015. With an extremely young list and a deliberate policy not to recruit extensively so that the young players could develop, Perth won only 2 games in 2015. In 2016, the team has won 6 of its first 14 games, including a victory over the top team, Subiaco.

Statistics
[5]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles  H/O  Hit-outs
AFL playing statistics
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T H/O G B K H D M T H/O
1987 Melbourne 352465188972857521350.30.27.84.011.93.10.91.55
1988 Melbourne 52292216172233712480.41.07.33.310.63.21.10.41
1989 Melbourne 51919221909728710316231.01.210.05.115.15.40.81.28
1990 Melbourne 5221591861082948524220.70.48.54.913.43.91.11.03
1991 Melbourne 522141019913633511120200.60.59.06.215.25.00.90.90
1992 Carlton 112219232061203269521210.91.09.45.514.84.31.01.06
1993 Carlton 112123221701102808816121.11.08.15.213.34.20.80.62
1994 Carlton 111812171231212447925140.70.96.86.713.64.41.40.80
1995† Carlton 1125342221316437712735501.40.98.56.615.15.11.42.08
1996 Carlton 1112181085501353726101.50.87.14.211.33.12.20.80
1997 Carlton 1140126133914530.00.36.53.39.83.51.30.80
Career 211 169 163 1747 1088 2835 885 233 218 0.8 0.8 8.3 5.2 13.4 4.2 1.1 1.0 33
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References
  1. Earl Spalding at ESPNcricinfo
  2. "East Fremantle Football Club premiership winning teams".
  3. "WA Football 200 Club". Archived from the original on 12 October 2011.
  4. Reid, Russell (24 September 2002). "Spalding quits Sharks, calls for new blood". The Age. Melbourne.
  5. "Earl Spalding". AFL Tables. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
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