Glen Middlemiss

Glenn Middlemiss
Personal information
Full name Glenn Russell Middlemiss
Date of birth (1956-06-08) 8 June 1956 (age 68)
Original team(s) Geelong West
Height 188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 90 kg (198 lb)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1979–1981 Geelong 34 (29)
1981–1984 St Kilda 16 (10)
Total 50 (39)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1984.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Glenn Russell Middlemiss (born 8 June 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He is the son of Russell Middlemiss, a Geelong premiership player in 1951 and 1952.

Middlemiss played his early football at Geelong West in the Victorian Football Association.[1] While playing for Geelong West, against Williamstown in 1977, Middlemiss was knocked unconscious in an accidental collision, after which he was clinically dead for two-and-a-half minutes.[1] The match was stopped for 20 minutes as he was attended to by trainers and a doctor, who gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, cardiac massage and oxygen.[1] Part of a fence had to be taken down so that an ambulance could come onto the field.[1] After recovering, Middlemiss resumed his career, against doctors' advice.[1]

A utility, Middlemiss was used mostly as a defender and up forward in his VFL career, which started at Geelong in 1979.[2] He made 19 appearances in 1980, two of them finals, including Geelong's four point preliminary final loss to Collingwood.[3] His most notable performance came in round eight, when he kicked seven goals against St Kilda at Kardinia Park.[3]

During the 1981 VFL season, Middlemiss moved to St Kilda and played nine games for his new club that year.[3] He added only seven more appearances over the next three seasons.[3] In his last year at the club, 1984, he was suspended five times, for a total of nine games. The first was a two match ban for striking Hawthorn's Russell Morris in a reserves fixture.[4] He then got a two match ban for striking Mark Buckley in Collingwood's round six game against Carlton.[4] When he returned against Richmond two weeks later he was reported again, for striking opposition captain Barry Rowlings, receiving another two-week ban.[4][5] He never made another senior appearance for St Kilda, but did continue to play in the reserves. It was while in the reserves that he was again made to appear before the tribunal, for striking Darren McAsey of the Sydney Swans.[6] He had previously been warned by St Kilda that if he got suspended again he would be sacked, but the club was satisfied that in this instance he had been provoked.[6] His last ban was for using abusive language toward a field umpire, in another reserves game, for which he got a one-week suspension.[7][8]

He moved north in 1985 and began playing for Southport in the Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL).[9] In the 1985 QAFL Grand Final against Mayne, which Southport won by three points, Middlemiss kicked the winning goal, with 68 seconds remaining.[10]

  1. ^ a b c d e The Age, "Glenn takes his chances", 5 April 1977, p. 17
  2. ^ Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia Of AFL Footballers. BAS Publishing. ISBN 9781920910785.
  3. ^ a b c d "Glenn Middlemiss". AFL Tables.
  4. ^ a b c Canberra Times, "Tribunal ousts another Saint", 29 May 1984, p. 15
  5. ^ Canberra Times, "Siren scores", 27 May 1984, p. 29
  6. ^ a b Canberra Times, "Middlemiss gets 4th suspension", 26 June 1984, p. 20
  7. ^ The Age, "Middlemiss one more", 31 July 1984, p. 39
  8. ^ The Age, "Still a Saint", 1 August 1984, p. 33
  9. ^ "Records & Statistics". Southport Sharks.
  10. ^ Canberra Times, "Southport grabs narrow win in final seconds", 16 September 1985, p. 24