The 8 players who debuted for the Cats in 2000
Footy is off and the world is a mess so let’s go back to a happier time in the AFL. From David Spriggs to Paul Chapman, these are the eight players who debuted for Geelong 20 years ago.
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THE footy has been postponed and there’s a sense of dread about what’s to come, so we thought we’d take you back 20 years to a more innocent time in the AFL.
Docklands Stadum had just opened, the league had just changed its logo, and the Cats were still in one of the all-time great premiership droughts as ex-Essendon legend Mark Thompson took over the reins from every Cats fans mortal enemy Gary Ayres.
Today we look at the 8 players who debuted for Geelong 20 years ago – before rolling out the other clubs over the next few weeks – as we take a trip down memory lane to a golden era of the AFL’s expansion.
DAVID SPRIGGS
Debuted Round 1 - (69 games, 20 goals)
THERE’S no two ways about it – David Spriggs is really, really ridiculously good looking.
And at the time of his debut, the blond-bombshell with the surfer’s tan and speed to burn looked like a handsome prospect for long-suffering Cats fans.
The No.15 draft pick slotted straight into Mark Thompson’s new-look set up with a Round 1 debut against Fremantle, tallying 11 touches on the way to an impressive 22-point victory over the Dockers in Perth, and earning a Rising Star nomination the week after with 17 disposals against the Saints.
From that point on, the Beaumaris product played 43 straight games in a roving role similar to what Gary Ablett Jr would eventually take on, before a knee injury ruled him out of the entire 2002 season.
Returning in 2003, Spriggs added another 15 games to his total before a disappointing 2004 that saw him play just five matches that led to him being delisted at the end of the season.
A brief visit to Sydney (the best kind of visit to Sydney) in 2005 saw him add five more games for the Swans, before he was again delisted and his AFL career came to an end.
As of 2018, we can happily report that Spriggs is still ridiculously good looking with an attractive bank account to boot, having sold his renovated St Kilda home for $1.55 million in August of that year.
Who needs footy anyway?
DANNY O’BRIEN
Debuted Round 3 - (8 games, 6 goals)
“I DID my knee playing for North Shore and then my best mate passed away in the spare bedroom, my dog died and then my girlfriend cheated on me, all in the space of six months.”
Have we got your attention yet?
The Danny O’Brien story is a bit of a rollercoaster packed with bad luck, good intentions, and an undoubted ability on the footy field.
Brought to Geelong by Gary Ayres after being selected at pick No.20 in the 1998 rookie draft, O’Brien slaved away at training with barely any interaction from the senior coach for the entire season, before Thompson took over and gave the Gippsland product his AFL shot.
Debuting in a Round 3 victory against Adelaide, O’Brien was dropped and then re-called for five straight games, before a one-disposal performance against the Hawks saw him relegated again. He played two more matches at the end of the season - where he could only muster four touches - before being told by Thompson that he “didn’t need to improve, but he just didn’t fit into (Thompson’s) plans for the future of the club.”
O’Brien would go on to join North Shore in the GFL - winning the Mathieson Medal in his first season - before blowing out his knee in Round 1 of the next season.
The injury - and the veritable s--tstorm of bad luck that followed - saw O’Brien move to Queensland, where he now plays and coaches for the Noosa Tigers.
DANIEL FOSTER
Debuted Round 9 - (17 games, 0 goals)
GEELONG’S fourth pick (No.23) of the 1999 national draft behind Joel Corey, David Spriggs and Ezra Bray was the only key position prospect the Cats went after in class now considered as the one that built a Geelong dynasty.
Playing two matches in his debut year - a two disposal loss to the Hawks and a stats donut in a draw against Port - Foster played another three games in 2001, all of which were losses.
Making the 22 for Round 1 in 2002, Foster recorded his first win in Round 3 against the Kangaroos in a string of eight consecutive matches before being dropped again.
The South Australian red-head came back for another four matches at the end of the season, but ended up on the Thompson scrapheap after 17 games as Tom Harley and Matthew Scarlett locked down the key defensive posts with help from Cameron Mooney.
Foster was last spotted playing for Wudinna United in the South Australian Mid West Football League.
CAMERON LING
Debuted Round 10 - (246 games, 139 goals)
THIS is where it got good for the Cats, and it came in the form of a slow ginger with a rubbish haircut.
The second last bloke picked by Geelong in their first of two “super drafts”, Ling came into the team as a mid-sized forward after being a damaging presence for the Falcons in the U18 in a similar role.
Starting his career in the hoops with a draw against Port Adelaide – where he contributed a goal from just three touches – the man that was more red than Ron Howard on the sands of Mars kept his place in the team for the Bombers the week after, where he famously put one out on the full from the goal square.
Ling went on to play eight more games in 2000 and another 13 in 2001, where he was finally pushed into the role that would define him – a blood-smeared tagger that was damaging the other way.
A Geelong lad through and through, he went on to live every Pivotonian child’s dream by hoisting the 2011 premiership cup as the Cats’ most recent flag-winning skipper.
Now does some TV stuff that we won’t talk about for fear of setting off a torrent of rage and abuse.
PAUL CHAPMAN
Debuted Round 12 - (280 games, 366 goals)
IN THIS writer’s humble opinion, the greatest player to ever pull on the hoops because he won me a pretty penny after taking home the Norm Smith in 2009.
Nuggety, aggressive, and blessed with a snap kick that was as smooth as Gary Ablett Jr’s haircut post-2008, Chapman became the epitome of what Geelong was all about in their glory years.
Starting his career against Collingwood with five touches and nothing on the scoreboard, Chapman played one more week before being dropped until Round 22, where he kept his place for the historic Docklands elimination final against the Hawks.
He managed another nine games in 2001 with mixed returns – including just four goals – until he solidified his spot in the team in 2002, like many of the other future champions of the club.
Already a fan favourite by the time the 2009 Grand Final rolled around, he will be forever remembered as the man that snagged the winning sausage roll in the game, with Stephen Quartermaine’s call of “it’s a snap, by Chapman! And Chapman’s kicked a goal!” forever etched in the memory of Cats fans.
Is now available for corporate speaking gigs where you’ll be tempted to give him a mainly huge and a kiss on the head for being the goodest of Geelong boys.
But don’t do it. It’s unprofessional and unhygenic. I’ve learned from my mistakes.
JOEL COREY
Debuted Round 17 - (276 games, 79 goals)
EVERYBODY talks about how well Geelong did in the depths on the 1999 AFL draft to recruit players like Chapman, Ling and Corey Enright (who didn’t debut until 2001), but they forget their first pick was a ripper too.
Skinny West Australian kid Joel Corey was taken with pick No.8 flanked by draft duds Danny Roach and Caydn Beetham, and he arguably became Geelong’s most valuable pick from a star-studded class.
Getting the call up for the Round 17 match against St Kilda, Corey looked the goods on debut with 15 disposals, following up with a seven-touch and one goal game against the Crows, then a superb 21-touch and one goal game against the Kangaroos.
The man known as “Smithy” – because he doesn’t have an adequate surname – finished 2000 with five games and suited up for another 14 in 2001.
Like Ling and Chapman, he hit his straps in 2002 with 20 matches and from there only played one season where he played fewer than 20 games, eventually retiring at the end of 2013 as a one-club player.
Is now employed by the Western Bulldogs as their stoppages coach.
CAMERON MOONEY
Debuted Round 17 - (221 games, 297 goals)
THERE wasn’t a whole lot of fanfare at Kardinia Park when brother of Jason – the talented one – turned up on the Moorabool St doorstep in 2000 as part of the Leigh Colbert trade.
Colbert – who had been given the captaincy for the late 90s – didn’t want to be a part of the club once Mark Thompson took over and headed to North Melbourne for picks 15 (Spriggs), 17 (Ezra Bray), 47 (Enright) and crucially, a man who didn’t get a touch for the Kangaroos in the 1999 Grand Final.
Nobody quite knew what to make of Mooney. His brother was a highly skilled tall forward that couldn’t shake his injuries, but Cameron was ever so slightly undersized for a key position player.
Debuting for Geelong against the Saints as a forward, he only managed two touches and nothing on the scoreboard, but saw out the season with five more games and six goals, three behinds to his name.
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From then on the “Big Hairy Cat” became a Mr Fix-It for Geelong, playing forward at times, moving to centre half back for a while, and even becoming an athletic back-up ruckman at one point.
It wasn’t until 2007 that Thompson settled on keeping the then 27-year-old as a key forward in tandem with Nathan Ablett, and Mooney repaid the trust, booting 67 goals from 25 games in a drought-breaking premiership year that also included an All Australian nod.
Mooney – or Mooooooooooons as he was known to the Cats faithful – played his final three games in 2011 with an honourable nine goals to go with them, but he was unable to squeeze Tom Hawkins and James Podsiadly out of that year’s premiership team.
Mooney now works as a boundary rider and presenter for Fox Footy.
MARCUS BALDWIN
Debuted Round 21 - (5 games, 5 goals)
THE dream run of debuts came to an end for the Cats in Round 21 against the Demons – but Marcus Baldwin didn’t look like a dud in his first game.
Sure, his stat line only read three marks and three kicks, but the 196cm beast from the Calder Cannons registered three goals as well.
Efficient? Yes. A sign of things to come? It depends.
On the disposal front, Baldwin maintained the the rage with very few kicks per game when he was given an opportunity in the seniors – but his goal-kicking stats fell off the cliff as well.
He played just one more game in 2000 and only played three more in 2001, finishing his career with five matchs and five goals.
After footy, Baldwin went on to date noughties dream girl Krista Vendy and turned his hand to modelling and fashin design, before founding business supplies company EFM Brands in St Kilda.
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