Shaun Hart
Personal information
Full name	Shaun Hart
Date of birth	17 May 1971 (1971-05-17) (age 38)
Place of birth	Ferntree Gully, Victoria
Recruited from	Shepparton United Football Club (Goulburn Valley Football League)
Draft	TBC, 1989 Brisbane Bears
Height/Weight	175cm / 75kg
Position(s)	Midfielder
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1989 – 1996 1997 – 2004	Brisbane Bears Brisbane Lions	102 (81) 171 (96)
1 Playing statistics to end of Preliminary final, 2004 season .

Shaun Hart (born 17 May 1971) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played his entire Australian Football League at the Brisbane Lions where he was a premiership winning utility player known for his courage. He is currently an assistant coach at the Gold Coast Football Club.

[edit] Early life

He was born in Ferntree Gully, Victoria and moved to country Victoria where he played for the Shepparton United Football Club.

Hart was recruited to the Brisbane Bears from Shepparton in the 1989 national AFL draft.

[edit] AFL career

Shaun Hart played his first senior game in the first match of the 1990 season.

He initially struggled with the demands of professional football and played a great deal of football in reserve grade. This allowed him to gain a place in the Bears' only premiership side by being eligible to play in the 1991 reserve grade Grand Final.

At some point around this time Hart became a born again Christian, an event which he credits with helping provide him with some direction in his life.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001 he was awarded his highest individual honour, the Norm Smith Medal, as best on ground in the Lions' first premiership win. He also went on to play important roles in the Lions successful campaigns in 2002 and 2003.

In the 2004 Preliminary Final, with the Lions poised to enter a playoff for a record-equalling fourth consecutive premiership, Hart was unlucky enough to find himself in the path of teammate Daniel Bradshaw on a lead. Bradshaw was unable to avoid a collision and Hart emerged with massive facial injuries. He was immediately taken to hospital, where shocked medical staff commented that his injuries were consistent with being in a car crash at speed without wearing a seat belt. As a consequence of consistent head injuries, for much of his career, he wore a soft helmet.

Unable to take his place in the Lions side for the 2004 Grand Final, he was forced to watch from his hospital bed as his team failed to maintain a halftime lead over Port Adelaide due to injuries to key forwards Jonathan Brown and Alastair Lynch. He announced his retirement from football not long afterwards.

[edit] Post AFL Career

Not long after retiring, Hart supported the newly-formed, Christian-aligned Family First Party in 2004 Federal election to the Australian House of Representatives. He currently works as a football commentator for radio and has a personal a group trainer of Bodyfit.

In 2007 he stood as a Family First candidate in Queensland for the Senate at the 2007 Australian federal election^[1], although he was unsuccessful.

In 2009, Hart became assistant coach at the Gold Coast Football Club.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Brisbane Lions Shaun Hart information page
• "Christian speaks out as he takes leave of Lions" Melbourne Age 1 October 2004, retrieved 15 December 2005
• "Surviving in the Lions Den" Sydney Anglicans 25/7/2003 retrieved 15 December 2005