Mal Michael | |||
---|---|---|---|
Personal information | |||
Full name | Malcolm Robert Michael | ||
Date of birth | 24 June 1977 | ||
Place of birth | Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea | ||
Original team(s) | Kenmore Bears Jnr AFL Club (BJAFL) / Morningside (QAFL) | ||
Draft |
1996 Rookie Draft, Collingwood #2, 2006 Pre-season Draft, Essendon | ||
Height | 190 cm (6 ft 3 in) | ||
Weight | 100 kg (220 lb) | ||
Position(s) | Defender | ||
Playing career1 | |||
Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
1997–2000 | Collingwood | 61 (23) | |
2001–2006 | Brisbane Lions | 140 | (5)|
2007–2008 | Essendon | 37 (5) | |
Total | 238 (33) | ||
International team honours | |||
Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
2004 | Australia | 2 | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2008. | |||
Career highlights | |||
| |||
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com |
Malcolm Robert Michael (born 24 June 1977) is a Papua New Guinean-born former Australian rules footballer. He is notable for his successful professional career in the Australian Football League. In a career spanning 238 games and three clubs in two Australian states he is best known as a triple premiership full-back with the Brisbane Lions. Michael is recognised as being one of the best Queensland produced Australian rules footballers of all time, being named on the AFL Queensland Team of the 20th Century.
He is possibly the only Australian rules footballer who is better known in a country other than Australia, maintaining a high profile in Papua New Guinea, and he is credited by many to have inspired the boom in playing numbers of Australian rules football in Papua New Guinea. In April 2009, The Guardian described him as one of Papua New Guinea's "living national icons", along with politician Michael Somare and philosopher Bernard Narokobi.[1]