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Michael Tuck
Personal information
Full name Michael Tuck
Date of birth (1953-06-24) 24 June 1953 (age 71)
Place of birth Berwick, Victoria
Height 188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 76 kg (168 lb)
Position(s) Ruck-rover
Half back
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1972–1991 Hawthorn 426 (320)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
Victoria 11 (5)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1991.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Michael Tuck (born 24 June 1953) is a seven-time premiership-winning player, Australian rules footballer with the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) / Australian Football League (AFL).

His 426 career games was a VFL/AFL record until it was broken by Brent Harvey of North Melbourne in Round 19 of 2016.

AFL career

Early career (1971–1973)

Raised in Berwick, in Melbourne's outer south-eastern suburbs, Tuck joined Hawthorn in 1971 from the country zone club of the same name, and remained at the club for his entire career. Tuck initially played as a full forward and the understudy to the great Peter Hudson, kicking 63 goals in the VFL Reserves in 1971. He made his Senior debut against Richmond in the eighth round the following year and kicked goals with his first three kicks in senior football,[1] but soon after lost form and was dropped from the senior side. Tuck would play in Hawthorn's winning 1972 Reserve grade premiership side.

Rising career (1974–1985)

In the following years Tuck was tried as a winger and defender before in 1974 finding his true niche as a ruck-rover and firmly establishing himself in the Hawthorn senior side. With Don Scott and Leigh Matthews, Tuck came to form a following combination feared by every other VFL club and a crucial role in Hawthorn's 1976 and 1978 premierships. Tuck was a team leader as Hawthorn appeared in seven successive grand finals between 1983 and 1989. In the last four years of his career Tuck was moved from the ball to the less demanding role of a running half-back flanker, but he still averaged over 17 possessions per game in the final years of his career.

Captaincy (1986–1991)

Tuck was the natural successor to the Hawthorn captaincy in 1986 after Leigh Matthews' retirement. He captained them from that year until his retirement in 1991 at the age of 38. He won a total of seven VFL/AFL premierships with Hawthorn, captaining the club in four of them.

Tuck never won Hawthorn's best-and-fairest, but was runner-up on six occasions,[2] and there was a good deal of controversy in 1982 and 1983 when he failed to poll a single vote in the Brownlow Medal, which led to votes for each match being made publicly available for the first time ever in 1984.[3]

His last game was in Hawthorn's premiership win in the Grand Final over West Coast.

Records

VFL/AFL

Tuck holds a number of VFL/AFL games records. These are:

  • Most senior games for Hawthorn: 426
  • Most VFL/AFL grand finals: 11
  • Most VFL/AFL premiership wins: 7
  • Most VFL/AFL games without winning a club best and fairest: 426

He retired as the tenth-oldest VFL/AFL player ever, at 38 years and 95 days old.[4]

Tuck's 426 games was a VFL/AFL record until it was broken by Brent Harvey in Round 19 of 2016; Harvey retired at the end of that season having played 432 premiership games.

Elite Australian rules football

In elite Australian rules football (the VFL/AFL, SANFL and WAFL), Tuck's 426 career premiership games was a record until broken by Craig Bradley in Round 6 of the 2001 AFL season: Bradley retired at the end of the 2002 AFL season after 464 games (89 for Port Adelaide in the SANFL and 375 for Carlton), and remains the record holder as of 2022.

As of 2022, Tuck's total of 426 premiership games is ranked fourth behind Bradley, Shaun Burgoyne (433, including 26 SANFL matches for Port Adelaide) and Harvey.

Other matches

Tuck also played 11 matches for Victoria in State of Origin football, and 29 pre-season/night series matches (which are counted as senior in the SANFL and WAFL but not the VFL/AFL). If these are included, Tuck played a total of 466 career senior games.

The VFL/AFL record Tuck's total as 437 career senior games, excluding his pre-season/night series matches.

Depending on the viewpoint taken:

  • The VFL/AFL's total of 437 was an elite Victorian football record until broken by Harvey (who also played 11 International Rules matches, which are counted as senior by the AFL) in Round 16 of 2016, while Harvey retired with 445 senior career games (Harvey also played two matches for Victoria in State of Origin).
  • If Harvey's International Rules matches are excluded, Tuck's overall total of 466 was an elite Victorian football record until broken by Harvey in Round 10 of 2016, while Harvey retired with 480 senior career games.
  • If Harvey's International Rules matches are included, Tuck's overall total of 466 was an elite Victorian football record until broken by Harvey in the first pre-season round of 2016, while Harvey retired with 491 senior career games.

As of 2022, Tuck's total of 437 career senior matches (using the AFL/VFL's total) ranks seventh behind Bradley (501), Peter Carey (467), Greg Phillips (447), Russell Ebert (446), Harvey (445) and Burgoyne (438), while the overall total of 466 career senior matches ranks fourth (if International Rules matches are excluded) behind Bradley (519), Harvey (480) and Carey, or fifth (if International Rules matches are included) behind Bradley (528), Harvey (491) and Carey and Burgoyne (equal on 467).

Statistics

[5]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
  #  
 Played in that season's 
premiership team
  †  
 Led the league for 
the season
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1972 Hawthorn 17 5 3 3 49 56 7 7 — 0.6 0.6 9.8 1.4 11.2 1.4 — 0
1973 Hawthorn 17 11 2 3 111 7 118 16 — 0.2 0.3 10.1 0.6 10.7 1.5 — 0
1974 Hawthorn 17 23 23 19 374 44 418 67 — 1.0 0.8 16.3 1.9 18.2 2.9 — 1
1975 Hawthorn 17 24 20 25 414 44 458 61 — 0.8 1.1 18.0 1.9 19.9 2.7 — 4
1976# Hawthorn 17 25 15 19 435 109 544 72 — 0.6 0.8 17.4 4.4 21.8 2.9 — 4
1977 Hawthorn 17 25 13 11 453 114 567 82 — 0.5 0.5 18.1 4.6 22.7 3.3 — 20
1978# Hawthorn 17 25 18 25 490† 134 624 89 — 0.7 1.0 19.6 5.4 25.0 3.6 — 14
1979 Hawthorn 17 22 20 27 419 126 545 68 — 0.9 1.2 19.0 5.7 24.8 3.1 — 12
1980 Hawthorn 17 19 15 24 282 103 385 68 — 0.8 1.3 14.8 5.4 20.3 3.6 — 2
1981 Hawthorn 17 21 32 31 300 110 410 84 — 1.5 1.5 14.3 5.2 19.5 4.0 — 6
1982 Hawthorn 17 25 37 28 374 160 534 73 — 1.5 1.1 15.0 6.4 21.4 2.9 — 0
1983# Hawthorn 17 20 33 22 350 98 448 75 — 1.7 1.1 17.5 4.9 22.4 3.8 — 0
1984 Hawthorn 17 20 21 14 296 92 388 45 — 1.1 0.7 14.8 4.6 19.4 2.3 — 8
1985 Hawthorn 17 23 23 18 305 106 411 63 — 1.0 0.8 13.3 4.6 17.9 2.7 — 1
1986# Hawthorn 17 24 13 14 295 179 474 67 — 0.5 0.6 12.3 7.5 19.8 2.8 — 5
1987 Hawthorn 17 26 17 14 348 165 513 62 73† 0.7 0.5 13.4 6.3 19.7 2.4 2.8 14
1988# Hawthorn 17 22 4 10 246 132 378 46 40 0.2 0.5 11.2 6.0 17.2 2.1 1.8 1
1989# Hawthorn 17 23 5 9 284 121 405 64 47 0.2 0.4 12.3 5.3 17.6 2.8 2.0 6
1990 Hawthorn 17 22 2 5 299 125 424 65 45 0.1 0.2 13.6 5.7 19.3 3.0 2.0 0
1991# Hawthorn 17 21 4 4 229 94 323 48 55 0.2 0.2 10.9 4.5 15.4 2.3 2.6 6
Career 426 320 325 6353 2070 8423 1222 260 0.8 0.8 14.9 4.9 19.8 2.9 2.3 104

Honours and achievements

Team

Individual

Legacy

Tuck was a skinny ruck-rover with great stamina as evidenced by the length of his career. He held the record as the VFL/AFL games record holder with 426 senior games, from his retirement until 30 July 2016, when the record was broken by North Melbourne's Brent Harvey. However, Tuck's durability is not only reflected in the number of senior games he played but also in having played fifty games for Hawthorn's reserves before becoming a regular senior player.[6] Tuck also polled 104 Brownlow votes for his career, but never came close to winning the award.

Two of his sons have played in the AFL: Shane Tuck for Richmond, and Travis Tuck for Hawthorn.

The medal presented to the best afield in the preseason cup final was named after him in 1992, as was a grandstand at Glenferrie Oval. He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.

Coaching career

Tuck briefly served as a reserves coach at Geelong, under former Hawks teammate Gary Ayres.[7]

Personal life

Tuck is the brother-in-law of former Geelong player Gary Ablett, Sr., having married Fay Ablett.[8]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Lovett, Michael (editor); AFL Record: Guide to Season 2005; p. 571 ISBN 0-9580300-6-5
  2. ^ Main, Jim and Holmesby, Russell; The Encyclopedia of League Footballers; (1st Edition); p. 442; ISBN 1-86337-085-4
  3. ^ See The Age; 26 September 1984.
  4. ^ "MWB2002.html". freeservers.com. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  5. ^ "AFL Tables - Michael Tuck - Stats - Statistics". afltables.com. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  6. ^ Lovett; AFL Record; p. 518
  7. ^ Baum, Greg (6 July 1995). "Geelong's new generals". The Age. p. 27.
  8. ^ McFarlane, Glenn (May 2012). "Abletts reach 'amazing' 900 league games". Sunday Herald Sun.

References

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