Brett Deledio (born 18 April 1987 in Kyabram, Victoria) is an Australian rules football player currently playing for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League.

[edit] Early life/career

Deledio attended Kyabram High School and Caulfield Grammar School.^[2] During his youth, he was both a promising cricket and football player. David Hookes, then the coach of the Victorian Bushrangers, invited Deledio to join the state team, but he declined this offer to concentrate on any future AFL career. Brett was enrolled to attend Caulfield Grammar School, which is the same school that hosted the likes of Chris Judd and Andrew Walker. After only a handful of days at the school he pulled out and went on to study with a tutor^{[citation needed]} and won the AFL Rising Star award for the best young star of 2005.

Deledio is the face of fashion label Travisty. Deledio competed in Rexona Australia's Greatest Athlete television show and finished 3rd with 1070 points, behind Jamie Whincup on 1085 points and Billy Slater on 1385.

His father Wayne played one game for Carlton in 1975 VFL season^[3]

[edit] Football career

[edit] 2005

He soon debuted for the Murray Bushrangers as the team's youngest squad member, before being selected with the first overall selection in the 2004 AFL Draft On 31 August 2005, Deledio was awarded for his outstanding season with the AFL Rising Star award, receiving 43 of a possible 45 votes. Deledio followed his Rising Star Award by also winning the AFL Players' Association Best First-Year Player Award, voted by his peer players. Deledio was also considered to be the fastest or one of the fastest players in the league, winning the 2005 AFL Grand Final Sprint.

Capping off his debut season, Deledio was chosen to represent Australia in the International Rules series for 2005, becoming the youngest Australian player in the competition's history.

[edit] 2006

Deledio played 21 out of 22 matches in 2006 and was again a consistent performer only missing the one game with an injured knee. He was often the target of attention from the opposition taggers, due to his abilities, and found it difficult to break the tag. However he still produced impressive figures, averaging 18.8 possessions and 6.5 marks a game.

[edit] 2007

Deledio developed into a highly versatile player, who often provided difficult match up's for the opposition. He often played multiple roles from the forward line to midfield to rebounding from the backline. In the forward line he used his speed and judgment well to lead into space and take strong marks and kicked 21 goals for the season. Out of defence, he often used his electric pace to provide run and carry and deliver pinpoint passes into the forward line. Deledio averaged 18.4 possessions and 5.4 marks a game.

Deledio's best game of the season was arguably during the Round 19 win vs Collingwood. Deledio kicked a career-high 5 goals, which earned him 3 brownlow votes.

[edit] 2008

Deledio started off in the forward line in Round 1, but has pushed up the ground since then. He surpassed 30 possessions for the first time this year, achieving the feat in Round 6 against Hawthorn, in Round 10 against Sydney and in round 11 against Adelaide. So far this season he has developed his game further, averaging 24.6 possessions and 1 goal a game.

Deledio won the AFL Army Award for his courage shown in round 7 against the Saints when he flew backwards into a pack to take a mark and heavily collided with a Saints player.

He was also announced in the 40 man All Australian squad for 2008.

Deledio was rewarded for his consistent season with the Richmond Best and Fairest. Deledio polled 250 votes to take out the award.

[edit] 2009

Deledio has recently relished playing under new Head Coach Jade Rawlings after being threatened with having to play for Coburg he came out and had 31 possessions against the crows. He also believes that Ben Cousins should be offered another contract to play on for the Richmond Tigers. Deledio also signed a new 3 year contract, Contracting him until the 2012 season

Deledio was rewarded for another consistent season by winning the Richmond Best and Fairest (Jack Dyer Medal) for the second year running. Deledio finished with a total of 190 votes just ahead of Daniel Jackson (175) and his skipper Chris Newman (162). Deledio has become the youngest player to win the award back to back (at the age of 22 years and 5 months) since Kevin Bartlett in 1967-1968 and the youngest player in the AFL since Michael Voss at Brisbane in 1995-96.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Brett Deledio profile on the Official AFL Website of the Richmond Football Club
• Brett Deledio's statistics from AFL Tables
• Feature story on Brett Deledio from his debut year at the Yellow and Black Supporters Forum and Website