Anthony Rock (born 29 September 1970) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for North Melbourne and Hawthorn in the VFL/AFL.

Anthony Rock
Personal information
Full name Anthony Rock
Date of birth (1970-09-29) 29 September 1970 (age 54)
Original team(s) Hadfield, St Dominic's
Height 175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 76 kg (168 lb)
Position(s) Midfielder
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1988–1998 North Melbourne 178 (138)
1999–2001 Hawthorn 044 0(17)
Total 222 (155)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2001.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Junior career

edit

Rock played his junior football at St Dominic's Junior FC—a club that later folded due to lack of parent volunteers, leaving him without a club at age 13.

He moved to the Hadfield Football Club, and it was this club from which he was recruited by North Melbourne.

AFL career

edit

He made his debut in the league during the 1988 season with North Melbourne. He stayed with the club a further 3 years after playing in their 1996 centenary premiership, moving to Hawthorn until his retirement in 2001. His final game was with VFL affiliate Box Hill Hawks, securing another flag in the club's first premiership.

Coaching career

edit

From 2002 to 2004, Rock was the head coach and development manager of the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup. During this period, Rock guided many young players into AFL careers. Among those drafted under his tutelage were Jed Adcock, Clinton Young, Troy Chaplin, Shaun Grigg, Liam Picken, Matt Rosa, Michael Jamieson and Brad Sewell.

From 2005 to 2008, Rock was the Midfield Coach at Melbourne, St. Kilda, and then back to North Melbourne after departing the AFL system.

During this period (2011–2015), it was announced that Rock would become the new senior Coach at Greenvale in the Essendon District Football League. Here, he led the club to back-to-back Premierships (2012/13) before heading to St Bernards Old Collegians in the Victorian Amateur Football Association, where he coached them to a flag in the 2015 Premier Division.[1] His time at St. Bernard's saw a further two of his players drafted in Mitch Hannan (Melbourne) and Ben Ronke (Sydney).

He then joined Fremantle as a development coach for the 2016 season[2] and was then promoted to their Midfield Coach from 2017 to 2019.

Accelerate program

edit

In 2010, the AFLPA supported Anthony Rock with his Accelerate program which provided a unique opportunity for 20 young men rejected by the AFL draft the first time around by putting together an infrastructure of expertise in a bid to keep the game's most talented second-tier players from 18 to 23 in the correct physical and emotional state to win a second chance. In partnership with sports consulting group Infront, three major sponsors, and the AFLPA's support, Rock was able to set up partnerships with seven VFL clubs and worked with 20 footballers hoping to be drafted.[3]

Statistics

edit
[4]
Legend
  G  
Goals
  K  
Kicks
  D  
Disposals 
  T  
Tackles
  B  
Behinds 
  H  
Handballs 
  M  
Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1988 North Melbourne 52 4 2 0 21 8 29 2 3 0.5 0.0 5.3 2.0 7.3 0.5 0.8 0
1989 North Melbourne 44 1 0 1 14 13 27 4 2 0.0 1.0 14.0 13.0 27.0 4.0 2.0 0
1990 North Melbourne 3 14 13 14 212 63 275 39 24 0.9 1.0 15.1 4.5 19.6 2.8 1.7 7
1991 North Melbourne 3 20 25 14 301 144 445 62 24 1.3 0.7 15.1 7.2 22.3 3.1 1.2 1
1992 North Melbourne 3 9 9 6 140 58 198 25 11 1.0 0.7 15.6 6.4 22.0 2.8 1.2 0
1993 North Melbourne 3 17 14 9 249 73 322 34 19 0.8 0.5 14.6 4.3 18.9 2.0 1.1 2
1994 North Melbourne 3 23 11 16 243 114 357 39 33 0.5 0.7 10.6 5.0 15.5 1.7 1.4 1
1995 North Melbourne 3 24 19 13 273 114 387 59 38 0.8 0.5 11.4 4.8 16.1 2.5 1.6 0
1996 North Melbourne 3 25 23 24 368 159 527 95 43 0.9 1.0 14.7 6.4 21.1 3.8 1.7 3
1997 North Melbourne 3 22 14 9 297 115 412 69 40 0.6 0.4 13.5 5.2 18.7 3.1 1.8 0
1998 North Melbourne 3 19 8 8 157 81 238 44 17 0.4 0.4 8.3 4.3 12.5 2.3 0.9 5
1999 Hawthorn 32 15 7 6 129 85 214 40 23 0.5 0.4 8.6 5.7 14.3 2.7 1.5 0
2000 Hawthorn 32 24 10 4 235 129 364 91 32 0.4 0.2 9.8 5.4 15.2 3.8 1.3 0
2001 Hawthorn 32 5 0 1 35 21 56 15 11 0.0 0.2 7.0 4.2 11.2 3.0 2.2 0
Career 222 155 125 2674 1177 3851 618 320 0.7 0.6 12.0 5.3 17.3 2.8 1.4 19

References

edit
  1. ^ Michell, Tim (1 October 2015). "St Bernard's premiership coach Anthony Rock departs for assistant coaching role with AFL club".
  2. ^ Malcolm, Alex (16 December 2015). "Shake up for Fremantle's coaching structure".
  3. ^ Wilson, Caroline (23 May 2010). "Rock helps AFL hopefuls in a hard place". The Age. Melbourne.
  4. ^ Anthony Rock's player profile at AFL Tables
edit