Tony Liberatore

Personal information
Birth	11 February 1966 (1966-02-11) (age 43), Australia
Recruited from	Brunswick City/Nth Melbourne
Height and weight	163 cm / 77 kg
Playing career¹
Debut	1986, Footscray Bulldogs vs. , at
Team(s)	Footscray/Western Bulldogs (1986-2002) 283 games 95 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2002 season
Career highlights
Morrish Medal 1984 Gardiner Medal 1986, 1988 Brownlow Medal 1990 Charles Sutton Medal 1991 Western Bulldogs official 'Team of the Century' squad member VFL/AFL Italian Team of the Century 2007 Victoria Australian rules football team E J Whitten Legends Game 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Anthony (Tony) Liberatore (born 11 February 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer.

Liberatore is the only player to have won the best-and-fairest medals in the Victorian under-19, Reserves and VFL/AFL. Liberatore is one of the shortest players to have played in the VFL/AFL competition and the shortest player to have won a Brownlow medal.

The tough rover still holds the record in the VFL/AFL for the most career tackles. He was much-hated by opposition fans for his ability to play close, pestering tagging roles.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Post AFL 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Early life

Tony Liberatore was born in Australia to Italian parents.^[1]

Liberatore started his football at Brunswick City. He was recruited by North Melbourne and played both under-19s and reserve grade football.

Liberatore moved to Footscray in 1986 and although he made his senior debut for the Bulldogs in 1986, he mainly played in the reserves, winning the Gardiner Medal in 1986 and 1988.^[2]

Standing at 163 cm, "Libba", of Italian descent, had played only 18 league games in his first four seasons before he played 19 games in 1990 and won the Brownlow Medal as the best and fairest player in the league.

He finished his career with 283 games in a career that included 13 finals, life membership, and selection on the interchange bench in the club's Team of the Century.

At times during his career, however, he drew attention and criticism. His tackling style was heavily scrutinised and as he developed into one of the league's first specialist taggers during the late 1990s he had many controversial incidents with opposition players, including Paul Kelly, Steven Lawrence and Matthew Knights.^[2]

[edit] Post AFL

Since retiring Liberatore has appeared in the E J Whitten Legends Game for Victoria on multiple occasions since 2003 and winning the Man of the Match in 2007.^[3]

Liberatore coached the Box Hill Hawks in the Victorian Football League in 2003 taking them to the Grand Final. From 2003 to 2007, Liberatore held an assistant coaching position at the Carlton Football Club. In 2008 he claimed Carlton "tanked" matches at the end of the season to secure the no. 1 draft selection, Matthew Kreuzer.^[4]

In 2008, Liberatore was Senior coach of the Sunbury Lions Football Club in the Ballarat Football League. In 2009, Liberatore joined the Western Region Football League as senior coach of the West Footscray Roosters.^[5]

In February 2008 Liberatore strongly criticised the current Western Bulldogs administration including president David Smorgon and chief executive Campbell Rose.^[6] In June 2009 he apologised for his comments, stating that his comments were based on incorrect information and that he was going through personal problems at the time, including a separation from his wife Judy.^[7]

His son, Thomas, represented Victoria at under 16 level in 2008^[8] and is a possibility to be selected as a father-son selection at the 2010 AFL Draft.^[7]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Western Bulldogs player profile - Tony Liberatore
• Tony Liberatore's statistics from AFL Tables

Preceded by Paul Couch

Brownlow Medallist 1990

Succeeded by Jim Stynes