EIGHTIES TASMANIAN FOOTBALL LEGENDS
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Regarded as one of football's nomads with 4 AFL clubs behind him Adrian Fletcher was recruited from Glenorchy in 1988 as a 19 year old William Leitch medallist, and went on to become one of the AFL competition's most prolific ball-winners who reached a well-earned 200-game milestone midway through 2001 at his fourth AFL club, Fremantle.
Fletcher has always been a hard nut - tough, resilient, good at the in-and-unders and an excellent reader of the play.
He started off at Geelong playing 23 games there from 1989-91 and kicking a total of 10 goals. From the Cats he transferred to St Kilda for a year in 1992 playing 22 games and also kicking 10 goals. In 1993 he moved yet again to the club where he made his name as a tough uncompromising midfielder - Brisbane.
The impact he had on a club striving for success, which in turn would bring credibility, was immediate.
From 1993-96, Fletcher played 86 of a possible 90 games, finishing fifth, fourth, second and fourth in the club champion awards.
While at the Bears/Lions Fletcher played 107 games from 1993-97 kicking a total of 53 goals. He was a significant player in the Bears 1996 preliminary final loss to Carlton playing on the half back line.
Adrian Fletcher is pictured third from right.
In 1997, however, his form slumped after the lack of a big pre-season.
So that year Fletcher's head down, bum up brand of footy was more evident in the Queensland State Football League.
He was accused of being too fat and too comfortable with his existence in a side struggling to live up to superpower expectations.
He fought back though and ended up with a season average of 19 possessions per game in 21 games.
'' I was up and down that year like a yo-yo and I was hoping I'd get a chance to redeem myself after what I'd done in the other four years, '' he said.
'' Everybody seemed to have a bad year that year and I didn't play to my standard, but I don't think I was the worst. '' Fletcher, desperate to finish his career in Brisbane, hoped the Lions hierarchy would be forgiving.
Instead, it was forthright.
'' As soon as I walked into the meeting with the match committee at the end of the season I knew I was gone, '' Fletcher said.
'' There's no doubt I would have liked to stay, but Freo gave me a chance and I'm happy to be here and excited about how many good kids we have at the club. '' Insiders at Brisbane claim that then coach John Northey _ sensing the pressure he was under to deliver a premiership _ turned on Fletcher.
In the space of 12 months, Northey had gone from one of Fletcher's biggest fans to his biggest critic. He later admitted his mistake in letting him go.
He played for the Bears throughout the tumultuous merger period with the Fitzroy Lions and is pictured here on the far right in the Round 20 game against Fitzroy in 1996.
Fletcher, as is his nature, is reticent to blame anyone but admits that leaving Brisbane tore at his heart.
'' It was one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life ,'' he said.
Fletcher felt he had found his niche with the Bears, finishing second in the club's best and fairest in 1995.
When you add a best and fairest fifth in 1993, fourth in 1994 and fourth in 1996 (when he also polled 14 Brownlow votes), some were surprised to see Fletcher go.
Carlton premiership coach Robert Walls, who was in charge of Fletcher in Brisbane from 1993 to 1995, said the decision to trade him to the Dockers was a ''gross mistake''.
Walls was delighted when Fletcher was picked up by Fremantle. '' When he first came to Brisbane in 1993 he lacked a little bit of confidence because he had played second fiddle to Paul Couch and Co at Geelong and then was at St Kilda for only a year. By the time he got to Brisbane he had been from Tasmania, to Geelong, to St Kilda and hadn't been able to consolidate. I spoke to him when he left Brisbane and told him it was important that he made the most of his last three or four years and that the Fremantle move gave him a chance to end his career in a positive way. "
As co-captain of Fremantle in 2001 he didn't quite have the same impact in 2000 as in 1999, but he was still highly effective. One of the AFL's most underrated players, though the umpires recognise his value with regular Brownlow votes. The midfielder brings players into the game and his forwards have confidence that the ball will get down there. Despite an average season by his heady standards, he was the club's leading handballer and showed great resilience to return from a fractured cheekbone after just two weeks.
At the end of the 2001 season he was asked to retire by the Fremantle club despite his remarkable ability to get his hands on the football which was highlighted again by his 2001 match statistics.
He was ranked in the AFL's top 20 for overall disposals and also was in the AFL's top five for handballs. He played 69 games for the Dockers ending up with the respectable tally of 25 goals.
A player Adrian Fletcher greatly respects is former Carlton and Sydney legend Greg Williams. They are similar types and, with respect, Fletcher could be regarded a poor man's Williams.
That is certainly no slur as Williams is probably the best player of his type in the recent history of the game.
" I have always admired him. He was not quick. He is one guy I've looked up to. " said Fletcher
Player honours: Fremantle best and fairest 1999, 2nd best fairest 1998; 2nd Brisbane best and fairest 1995; co-captain from 2000-01.
Brownlow Medal: 2000 votes (10); career votes (73).
Adrian Fletcher is currently playing for Williamstown in the VFL.
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Adrian Fletcher - A Tasmanian Football Legend
Regarded as one of football's nomads with 4 AFL clubs behind him Adrian Fletcher was recruited from Glenorchy in 1988 as a 19 year old William Leitch medallist, and went on to become one of the AFL competition's most prolific ball-winners who reached a well-earned 200-game milestone midway through 2001 at his fourth AFL club, Fremantle.
Adrian Fletcher is pictured third from right.
