Mal Michael

Mal Michael
Michael in Essendon colours
Personal information
Full name	Malcolm Robert Michael
Date of birth	(1977-06-24) 24 June 1977 (age 47)
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	061 (23)
2001–2006	Brisbane Lions	140 0(5)
2007–2008	Essendon	037 0(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
3× AFL premiership player 2001, 2002, 2003 AFL Rising Star nominee: 1997 Harry Collier Trophy 1997
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]