David Hale (footballer)

David Hale (born 22 May 1984) is an Australian rules football coach and former player who is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League. As a player, he played with the North Melbourne Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League.

David Hale
Personal information
Full name David Hale
Date of birth (1984-05-22) 22 May 1984 (age 40)
Place of birth Hobart, Tasmania[1]
Original team(s) Broadbeach Football Club (QLD)
Draft No. 7, 2001 national draft
Debut Round 5, 2003, North Melbourne vs. Carlton, at Telstra Dome
Height 201 cm (6 ft 7 in)
Weight 104 kg (229 lb)
Position(s) Forward/Ruck
Club information
Current club Hawthorn (assistant coach)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2003–2010 Kangaroos/North Melbourne 129 (119)
2011–2015 Hawthorn 108 0(98)
Total 237 (217)
Coaching career3
Years Club Games (W–L–D)
2019 Fremantle 1 (0–1–0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2015.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 2019.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Early life

edit

Hale was born in Hobart, Tasmania but moved to the Gold Coast, Queensland with his parents prior to his first birthday.[2] He grew up in the Coolangatta area of the Gold Coast and attended Marymount College during his schooling years. In 2000, he began playing with the Coolangatta Tweed Heads Australian Football Club in Division 2 of the state league where he was selected in the AIS/AFL Academy squad .[1] In 2001, he switched to Broadbeach and represented Queensland at the under 18 national championships.

AFL career

edit

Hale was recruited from the Broadbeach Football Club. He represented the Queensland Scorpions at U16 and U18 state championship levels before being taken at pick 7 in the 2001 AFL Draft by the Kangaroos Football Club.

Hale spent the 2002 season playing for the Murray Kangaroos in the VFL[3] before making his AFL debut for North Melbourne in Round 5, 2003.

In 2008 Hale lead the goalkicking for North Melbourne with 37 goals, including a career-best 8 goals against Geelong in Round 21; a performance that earned him 3 votes in the Brownlow Medal.[4] Hale then seemed to fall out of favour with the coaching staff playing only 16 games in 2009 and 12 in 2010.

On 8 October 2010, David Hale was traded to Hawthorn in exchange for a 1st round draft pick.

His first season at the Hawks Hale played a predominantly forward role, providing a tall marking target, then he would provide relief to Max Bailey in the ruck. In 2012 with Bailey injured, Hale took the number one ruck mantle, rotating duties with forward partner, Jarryd Roughead. Hale enjoyed more time on the ball and used his mobility to have an impact around the ground. Bailey returned in 2013 so Hale again was 2nd mantle in rucking until Bailey would get subbed off and then he took the lead rucking spot.

Hale played in all three of Hawthorn's victorious Grand Finals from 2013 to 2015. Hale was substituted off for Matt Suckling late in the 3rd quarter of the 2015 AFL Grand Final; with abolition of the substitute rule at the end of the 2015 AFL season, this meant that Hale became the last player to be substituted out of the game.[5] He announced his retirement on 6 October 2015.[6]

Coaching

edit

Fremantle Football Club

edit

On 23 October 2015, it was announced that he had joined Fremantle Football Club as an assistant coach under senior coach Ross Lyon alongside former premiership teammate Brent Guerra for the 2016 season.[7] In the 2019 season, Hale coached Fremantle as caretaker senior coach for one game in the final round of the season, which was their loss to Port Adelaide, in Round 23, 2019, after senior coach Ross Lyon was sacked the previous week.[8][9][10] Hale was not retained as Fremantle Football Club senior coach at the end of the 2019 season and was replaced by Justin Longmuir, but Hale however remained at Fremantle Football Club as an assistant coach. At the end of the 2021 season, Hale would depart Fremantle Football Club to return to Hawthorn as an assistant.[11]

Hawthorn Football Club

edit

At the end of the 2021 season, Hale returned to Hawthorn Football Club as an assistant coach under senior coach Sam Mitchell.[12][13]

Statistics

edit
Legend
  G  
Goals
  K  
Kicks
  D  
Disposals 
  T  
Tackles
  B  
Behinds 
  H  
Handballs 
  M  
Marks
H/O
Hit-outs
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
2003 Kangaroos 31 3 0 0 5 3 8 4 1 8 0.0 0.0 1.7 1.0 2.7 1.3 0.3 2.7 0
2004 Kangaroos 31 11 4 2 47 27 74 37 10 62 0.4 0.2 4.3 2.5 6.7 3.4 0.9 5.6 0
2005 Kangaroos 31 23 14 2 132 76 208 86 46 224 0.6 0.1 5.7 3.3 9.0 3.7 2.0 9.7 0
2006 Kangaroos 31 22 11 12 166 84 250 120 42 243 0.5 0.5 7.5 3.8 11.4 5.5 1.9 11.0 0
2007 Kangaroos 31 20 14 11 122 99 221 88 39 166 0.7 0.6 6.1 5.0 11.1 4.4 2.0 8.3 0
2008 North Melbourne 31 22 37 19 156 94 250 130 38 187 1.7 0.9 7.1 4.3 11.4 5.9 1.7 8.5 8
2009 North Melbourne 31 16 22 13 94 45 139 79 21 54 1.4 0.8 5.9 2.8 8.7 4.9 1.3 3.4 4
2010 North Melbourne 31 12 17 8 58 34 92 34 17 38 1.4 0.7 4.8 2.8 7.7 2.8 1.4 3.2 0
2011 Hawthorn 20 20 19 15 115 125 240 98 41 273 1.0 0.8 5.8 6.3 12.0 4.9 2.1 13.7 1
2012 Hawthorn 20 24 24 18 139 192 331 94 54 547 1.0 0.8 5.8 8.0 13.8 3.9 2.3 22.8 3
2013# Hawthorn 20 24 20 26 139 174 313 98 60 405 0.8 1.1 5.8 7.3 13.0 4.1 2.5 16.9 0
2014# Hawthorn 20 22 22 11 101 123 224 77 55 360 1.0 0.5 4.6 5.6 10.2 3.5 2.5 16.4 0
2015# Hawthorn 20 18 13 5 66 97 163 41 43 285 0.7 0.3 3.7 5.4 9.1 2.3 2.4 15.8 0
Career[14] 237 217 142 1340 1173 2513 986 467 2852 0.9 0.6 5.7 4.9 10.6 4.2 2.0 12.0 16

Honours and achievements

edit

Team

Individual

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Official AFL Website of the Gold Coast SUNS". goldcoastfc.com.au.
  2. ^ "The West Australian". The West.
  3. ^ Burgan, Matt (29 June 2002). "Our best youngsters: Where are they now?". Australian Football League. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  4. ^ Muirden, Paige (23 September 2008). "Not everyone gets the thumbs up at checkpoint Charlie". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 13 April 2020 – via Herald Sun.
  5. ^ Lyon, Karen (3 October 2015). "Lake, Hale left to consider AFL futures". Wide World of Sports. Nine Network. Archived from the original on 4 October 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  6. ^ Phelan, Jennifer (6 October 2015). "Veteran Hawthorn pair Lake and Hale retire with three-flag haul". AFL.com.au. Bigpond. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Fremantle add premiership trio to coaching group". Fremantle Football Club. 23 October 2015.
  8. ^ McArdle, Jordan (23 August 2019). "'Hva fun and enjoy: Fremantle Dockers caretaker coach David Hale's message to players for finale". The West Australian. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  9. ^ "No toxic culture at Dockers: Hale". 23 August 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  10. ^ "David Hale to take caretaker role at Fremantle after Ross Lyon sacking". 19 August 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Freo farewell David Hale". 12 September 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Hale's Hawks homecoming as coaching ranks strengthen". 12 September 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Pies add Bolton and Leppitsch, Hale to Hawks". 13 September 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  14. ^ "David Hale". AFL Tables.
edit