WRFL 2020: Brendan Fevola considering return to Deer Park
Just months after announcing he was calling time on his decorated career, Brendan Fevola is considering a shock return to one of his former clubs this season.
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Sharpshooter Brendan Fevola is considering a shock suburban football comeback.
The former Carlton and Brisbane Lions champion announced he would hang up the boots last August, but it is understood he could return to WRFL powerhouse Deer Park, where he played in a flag in 2016.
While discussions are in their infancy as Fevola weighs his work and family commitments, the Lions are keen to have the gun full-forward roaming their attacking 50m arc in 2020.
The 39-year-old booted 50 goals from 11 games for Deer Park four years ago, including a bag of four in the club’s Division 1 grand final victory over Hoppers Crossing.
The Lions have won the past seven premierships in the WRFL – a suburban record for a top-flight competition – but they have had some key departures over the off-season.
Shannon Byrnes, Jackson Barling and Daniel Cooper have retired, while Kevin Klix (East Keilor) and Shaun Harrison (Macedon) have also exited.
Star pair Kwame McHarg and Jase Perkins could also be on the move after being linked with a move to Port Melbourne Colts, which would rob Deer Park of significant firepower.
Since his successful one-year stint at the Lions, Fevola has had two seasons in coaching roles at Ballarat league side Melton South and took the field for Hastings in 2019.
He kicked 30 majors from 10 games for the MPFNL Division 2 outfit, including a nine-goal haul against Devon Meadows in July, showing he has not lost his ability to cause myriad headaches for defenders.
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Fevola failed to lift Hastings into the finals and announced he would call time on his decorated career after the club’s final-round defeat to Somerville.
“We had to win on the weekend and another team had to lose for us to make finals, we ended up losing anyway,” Fevola said on Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Byron in August.
“I was driving down the Peninsula and I was contemplating whether it was going to be my last game of footy that I played ever.
“Throughout the game I was like ‘yeah this is it’, when it finished I knew it was it. I knew I was done.
“I’m 38, got four kids at home and it’s just tough waking up every morning. I don’t train, I’m fat and my body has just about had enough.”
Fevola is perhaps the biggest drawcard in local football and has made several one-off appearances for clubs across the country since his AFL retirement.
Fevola, who came through NAB League side Dandenong Stingrays, booted 623 goals from 204 games at the elite level from 1999-2011.
He was a three-time All Australia, two-time Coleman medallist and Carlton’s leading goalkicker on seven occasions.
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