Greg "Diesel" Williams (born 30 September 1963) is a former champion Australian rules footballer with the Sydney Swans, Geelong Football Club and the Carlton Football Club in the Victorian/Australian football League.

[edit] Early life

Greg grew up in Bendigo in central Victoria, where he played football for Golden Square and won two league Best and Fairest by age 17. He is third of eight children.

[edit] Honours

Williams is a dual Brownlow Medal winner as the best and fairest player in the league. He won his first Brownlow with the Sydney Swans in 1986 with 17 votes (a record low for the winner) and the second with Carlton in 1994 with 30 votes (close to the highest ever). He is also a dual VFL/AFL Players Association Most Valuable Player award winner (with Geelong in 1985 and Carlton in 1994), and a Norm Smith Medal winner with Carlton as best on ground during the 1995 AFL Grand Final. He is also a 4 time All-Australian Team member.

His 53 disposals in the Round 19 match between Sydney and St. Kilda in the 1989 AFL season is still unofficial but still a record for a single game, with records beginning in 1986.^[1]

In 2001 Williams was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

In 2009, Williams was one of 7 players from the "1982-current" era inducted into the Sydney Swan's inaugural Hall of Fame.^[2]

[edit] Controversy

Greg Williams was a noted offender in the VFL/AFL, being found guilty by the tribunal on ten occasions and suspended for a total of 30 matches. The bulk of these penalties were for striking.

The most controversial moment of his career came in 1997, his final season. In Round 1 immediately after the final siren of the Easter Monday Carlton vs Essendon game, Williams was involved in some verbal abuse with longtime rival player Sean Denham. During the incident, umpire Andrew Coates stepped in from the side, and Williams made contact by pushing the umpire in the chest/shoulder area to continue the exchange with Denham. The push, while not very forceful, was enough to knock Coates off balance. At the time the umpire did not see the incident as sufficient for a report.^[3] The AFL, however, saw it differently, and charged Williams with "unduly interfering with an umpire". The tribunal then suspended Williams for nine games.^[4] This was considered excessive by many AFL fans and commentators, considering that 17 years earlier Phil Carman was suspended for sixteen matches for headbutting an umpire. Carlton appealed the verdict in the supreme court where it was overturned, allowing Williams to continue playing through the season. The decision handed down by Justice Hedigan included many recommendations for improving the AFL tribunal process and led in part to the establishment of an appeals process.[1]

The AFL decided to pursue Williams' case further through the Australian legal system to try to get Williams' nine week suspension reinstated. Such a move had rarely, if ever, been made before in the VFL/AFL (outside of charges which were punishable under assault laws). The AFL eventually won the case in the Victorian Court of Appeal with a split decision, four months after the incident had occurred. Carlton then went to High Court of Australia in a bid for a stay of the ruling by the court of appeal, but this was not granted and Williams' season, and playing career, was over as he retired at the end of the 1997 season. In total, the appeals process cost Carlton over $400,000.[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Greg Williams (Australian footballer)'s statistics from AFL Tables
• Greg Williams Profile in Blueseum
• AFL: Hall of Fame
• Full Points Footy Bio