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Peter Bell (footballer, born 1976)

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For information about the former St Kilda player named Peter Bell, see Peter R. Bell.
Peter Bell
Personal information
Full name Peter Francis Bell
Date of birth (1976-03-01) 1 March 1976 (age 48)
Place of birth Jeju Island, South Korea[1]
Original team(s) South Fremantle Football Club
Height 175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 81 kg (179 lb)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1995 Fremantle 002 00(2)
1996–2000 North Melbourne 123 (120)
2001–2008 Fremantle 161 (128)
Total 286 (250)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2008.
Career highlights

Club

Representative

Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Peter Francis Bell (born 1 March 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club and the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League. He played as a rover (or follower). A former captain of the Fremantle Football Club, Bell was twice named as a member of the All-Australian Team. He was an acclaimed ball-winner and had more than 30 possessions in a game on 39 occasions in his career.

Bell has played more games and the third-most goals of any AFL player born outside of Australia.

Early life

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Bell was born in Jeju Island, South Korea, the son of a Korean mother, Kyung Ae and a Native American father of Navajo descent.[1] In 1979, he was adopted by an Australian couple who were in South Korea as Christian missionaries.

Bell spent his formative years in Kojonup, Western Australia, and began playing junior football at the age of 10 with Kojonup Cougars Junior Football Club.[2] As well as playing, he was a regular scoreboard attendant and also boundary umpired.[3] At the age of 13, he broke his leg which had complications and required additional resetting.[4]

He was educated at Aquinas College, Perth,[5] where he was a boarder. At Aquinas, he continued playing junior football from age 15 where he excelled, earning selection in the WA junior representative team.[4] In 1994, he joined the South Fremantle Football Club and had an immediate impact being named best and fairest.[4] Despite being considered short by AFL standards at the time he was shortly after selected in the inaugural Fremantle Dockers AFL club list drawn from the local clubs.[4]

Bell became one of the first two players signed by the Fremantle Dockers, which made its debut in the Australian Football League the following year.[2]

AFL career

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Fremantle (1995)

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Despite kicking two goals with his first two kicks in AFL football, Bell failed to make an impression on Dockers' coach Gerard Neesham, who regarded him as too slow a runner to be a successful AFL player.[2] Bell was selected for only two games in 1995.[2]

North Melbourne (1996–2000)

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He was delisted at the end of that season, worked hard to improve his leg speed, and was picked up in the 1996 Pre-season draft, by North Melbourne, where he achieved regular selection and acclaim for his courageous, energetic and skilled performances under coach Denis Pagan. Bell was a premiership player with the Kangaroos in 1996 and 1999, and was named an All-Australian on the bench in 1999. He scored four goals and had 31 possessions in the 1999 Grand Final to be one of the Roos best on the day. In 2000, he won the North Melbourne best and fairest award, the Syd Barker Medal.

Fremantle (2001–2008)

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Bell leading Fremantle from the ground in 2005

At the end of 2000, Fremantle sought his return and Bell was traded back to his original club. As it happened, 2001 was a disastrous season for the Dockers, winning the "wooden spoon" and culminating in the dismissal of coach Damian Drum. Bell won the Doig Medal for the Dockers' best and fairest player that year, and was one of the very few shining lights in a season where the Dockers recorded just two victories. These two wins were in part due to outstanding performances from Bell, who gathered thirty-eight possessions and two goals against Hawthorn in round 18, and forty-four disposals and three goals against Adelaide in round 22. The following year he was appointed captain and in 2003 the club made the finals for the first time. Bell was once again an All-Australian, this time as a follower.

He continued his good form into 2004, winning another Doig Medal. However, Fremantle's team performances were not as good, and in both 2004 and 2005 they narrowly missed making the finals. 2006 started poorly, but Bell was a leading player in Freo's record setting 9-game winning streak to finish in the top four for the first time, and also a member of the team that beat Melbourne in the second semi final to record Fremantle's first ever finals game win.

Despite offering to hand over the captaincy to Matthew Pavlich in 2003,[6] he remained captain for five seasons until the end of the 2006 season.

At Subiaco Oval, enthusiastic supporters rang a bell (a play on his surname) whenever Bell got a possession. Bell has the exact bell which was rung so enthusiastically on his sideboard in his current home. He was president of the AFL Players Association from 2003 until the beginning of 2007.

Bell (#32 at left)

Bell announced his immediate retirement on 7 July 2008,[7] having played his last game in the club's Round 14 loss to Essendon. He played 286 games with North Melbourne and Fremantle.

Playing statistics

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Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1995 Fremantle 32 2 2 0 5 4 9 0 1 1.0 0.0 2.5 2.0 4.5 0.0 0.5
1996 North Melbourne 26 23 23 11 187 128 315 36 21 1.0 0.5 8.1 5.6 13.7 1.6 0.9
1997 North Melbourne 26 25 24 16 281 182 463 69 36 1.0 0.6 11.2 7.3 18.5 2.8 1.4
1998 North Melbourne 26 25 17 14 327 215 542 67 43 0.7 0.6 13.1 8.6 21.7 2.7 1.7
1999 Kangaroos 26 25 32 20 427 195 622 96 48 1.3 0.8 17.1 7.8 24.9 3.8 1.9
2000 Kangaroos 26 25 24 19 387 262 649 107 75 1.0 0.8 15.5 10.5 26.0 4.3 3.0
2001 Fremantle 32 19 14 10 313 214 527 83 52 0.7 0.5 16.5 11.3 27.7 4.4 2.7
2002 Fremantle 32 22 11 10 308 264 572 77 47 0.5 0.5 14.0 12.0 26.0 3.5 2.1
2003 Fremantle 32 23 20 9 354 242 596 111 72 0.9 0.4 15.4 10.5 25.9 4.8 3.1
2004 Fremantle 32 21 22 12 279 215 494 81 56 1.0 0.6 13.3 10.2 23.5 3.9 2.7
2005 Fremantle 32 18 12 8 251 171 422 91 69 0.7 0.4 13.9 9.5 23.4 5.1 3.8
2006 Fremantle 32 23 14 12 306 236 542 116 76 0.6 0.5 13.3 10.3 23.6 5.0 3.3
2007 Fremantle 32 22 28 12 266 218 484 102 63 1.3 0.5 12.1 9.9 22.0 4.6 2.9
2008 Fremantle 32 13 7 4 127 157 284 54 41 0.5 0.3 9.8 12.1 21.8 4.2 3.2
Career 286 250 157 3818 2703 6521 1090 700 0.9 0.5 13.3 9.5 22.8 3.8 2.4

[8]

Post-player career

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Bell was educated at the University of Western Australia, where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws.[9]

In 2013, Bell joined radio broadcaster 6PR as host of the afternoon slot, alongside his match-day special comments for AFL games on the station. In 2016, he moved to ABC Radio Perth to host the weekday breakfast program.[10] He also did some AFL coverage for the Seven Network.[11]

In September 2018, Bell was appointed general manager of the Fremantle Football Club, and he resigned from his radio and television roles.[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b Peter Bell and the singular quest of Kyung Ae from ABC Broadcast 5 August 2019
  2. ^ a b c d Bulldogs champion Peter Bell enters Australian Football Hall of Fame 4 June, 2015
  3. ^ Kojonup, Western Australia by Les Everitt 9 July 2012
  4. ^ a b c d Peter Bell Class of 1993
  5. ^ Crikey - Famous alumni on Latham's hit list Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Wilson, Caroline (30 March 2003). "Bell calls for new captain". The Age. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  7. ^ Pike, Chris (7 July 2008). "Bell calls an end to a glittering career". AFL.com.au. Archived from the original on 10 July 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  8. ^ "Peter Bell". AFL Tables. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  9. ^ Wilson, Caroline (30 March 2003). "Bell tolls in Fremantle and beyond". The Sunday Age. p. 14.
  10. ^ "Breakfast with Peter Bell and Paula Kruger". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  11. ^ a b Annabel Stewart (25 September 2018). "Peter Bell takes up Fremantle Dockers football role in AFL, exits ABC Radio Perth". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
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