| Danny Frawley | |||
|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Frawley during a pre-season match in 2017 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Daniel Patrick Frawley | ||
| Nickname | Spud | ||
| Born | (1963-09-08)8 September 1963 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia | ||
| Died | 9 September 2019(2019-09-09) (aged 56) Millbrook, Victoria, Australia | ||
| Original team | Bungaree (CHFL) | ||
| Debut | Round 4, 1984,St Kilda vs.Hawthorn, atPrinces Park | ||
| Height | 191 cm (6 ft 3 in) | ||
| Weight | 95 kg (209 lb) | ||
| Position | Full back | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1984–1995 | St Kilda | 240 (13) | |
| Representative team honours | |||
| Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
| 1987–1994 | Victoria | 11 (0) | |
| International team honours | |||
| 1987–1990 | Australia | 6 (2) | |
| Coaching career | |||
| Years | Club | Games (W–L–D) | |
| 2000–2004 | Richmond | 113 (45–68–0) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of the 1995 season. 2 Representative statistics correct as of 1994. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
| |||
| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
Daniel Patrick "Spud"Frawley (8 September 1963 – 9 September 2019) was anAustralian rules football player, coach, administrator, commentator and media personality. He played 240 games for theSt Kilda Football Club in theVictorian Football League (VFL)/Australian Football League (AFL) from 1984 to 1995,captaining the club for nine seasons, and wonAll-Australian selection and theSt Kilda best and fairest award in 1988. Frawley coached theRichmond Football Club from 2000 to 2004, with his most successful season coming in 2001, when he coached Richmond to a preliminary final. He later served as chief executive officer of theAFL Coaches Association from 2008 to 2014, and had part-time roles with theHawthorn Football Club and St Kilda.
Following his coaching career, Frawley was an AFL commentator forFox Footy,Triple M and1116 SEN, and also appeared onThe Sunday Footy Show on theNine Network. On television, he is best remembered for his work on the Fox Footy programBounce, which he co-hosted alongside contemporaryJason Dunstall for over 350 episodes from 2007 to his death in 2019; on radio, he is best remembered for his work on Triple M, most notably his appearances onThe Saturday Rub, from 2005 to 2016. Frawley quietly struggled with mental health problems throughout most of his time in football, but he became more open in his later years, leading him to host his own podcast on SEN dedicated to mental health,No Man Should Ever Walk Alone, from 2017 to 2018. Frawley died by suicide in a single-vehicle car crash inMillbrook, Victoria, on 9 September 2019.
Frawley was educated atSt Patrick's College, Ballarat, and played country football forEast Ballarat in theBallarat Football League (BFL) andBungaree in theCentral Highlands Football League (CHFL).[1] He grew up and worked on a potato farm inBungaree, which led to his nickname of "Spud".[1][2][3]
Frawley was the nephew of formerCollingwood playerDes Tuddenham[3][4] and the uncle ofMelbourne,HawthornSt Kilda and CurrentGold Coast Reserves playerJames Frawley.[3][5] His brother Tony was the chief executive officer ofAFL Northern Territory from 2005 to 2015.[6]
As of 2023, Frawley is one of only 16 players to play their first 90 games consecutively.[7] Frawley initially played as a forward but soon became a renownedfull-back.[1] He captained theSt Kilda Football Club for nine seasons over his 240-game playing career from 1984 to 1995.[8] He was the club's best and fairest winner in 1988 and was named in the All-Australian team the same year. He was the longest-servingcaptain of the St Kilda Football Club.[9] He was inducted into theSaints' hall of fame in 2007.[10]
Individual
After his retirement from playing, Frawley spent four years as an assistant coach atCollingwood Football Club from 1996 until 1999 under senior coachTony Shaw.[11][12][13][14]
Frawley became the senior coach of theRichmond Football Club in 2000 when he replacedJeff Gieschen.[13][14] In his first year in the2000 season, Richmond under Frawley just missed out of the finals by finishing ninth. In the2001 season, he took the Tigers into the finals, where, in the preliminary finals, they were eliminated by theBrisbane Lions, who were the eventual premiers.[15] Under Frawley, the club moved to fourth on the ladder and their first preliminary final since 1995.[3] In the2002 season, however, Richmond under Frawley struggled and finished 14th. At the start of the2003 season, the initial signs were positive, with Richmond under Frawley starting with six wins and two losses to start the season; however, the club's on-field performance dropped when they lost 13 of their next 14 matches and finished 13th.[16][17]
In the2004 season, Richmond under Frawley kept struggling and finished 16th for the "wooden spoon", which was the last position on the ladder at the time. Midway through the season, Frawley announced that he would resign at the end of the 2004 season.[18][19] Richmond under Frawley lost their last 14 matches of the 2004 season.[16] Frawley was then replaced byTerry Wallace as Richmond Football Club senior coach.[20][21]
From 2008 until 2014, Frawley worked atHawthorn as a part-time assistant coach.[22]
He rejoinedSt Kilda as a backline and key-position assistant coach in November 2014.[23] Later, and until 2018, Frawley was a part-time specialist defence coach at the St Kilda Football Club.[2][24]
After leaving senior coaching, Frawley was a special commentator forTriple M.[25] In June 2006, he coached a winning Victorianstate of origin side in theE. J. Whitten Legends Match and became the chief executive of the AFL Coaches Association.[18]
During his playing career, Frawley was a regular cast member onAFL Squadron alongsideGarry Lyon. When he transitioned to being a commentator primarily, Frawley was a commentator forFox Footy and was a co-host ofBounce withJason Dunstall andCameron Mooney, as well as a part of the1116 SEN Footy team on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons.[2] Earlier in his career, he was also involved with theNine Network andTriple M as a commentator and a regular co-host onThe Saturday Rub.[26] He also hosted a Monday night show on SEN calledNo Man Should Ever Walk Alone on men's health topics including mental health, addiction, and lifestyle.[27]
Frawley was married to Anita,[2][3][26] who made regular appearances on theFox Footy Channel programLiving with Footballers.[28] They had three daughters: Chelsea, Danielle, and Keeley.[2][3][26]
On 9 September 2019, a day after his 56th birthday, Frawley died in a single-vehicle car crash inMillbrook, Victoria.[26][29] The incident occurred shortly after 1:30 pm when his car left the road and struck a tree on Old Melbourne Road between Ryans and Chapmans Roads.[30] He was the only passenger and died at the scene of the crash.[3] The coroner ruled his death a suicide.[31] An examination of his brain nearly a year later found that Frawley had stage twochronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries; his wife Anita said she had "strongly suspected there was more going on with Danny than straightforward depression".[32][33][34][35][36]
TheTrevor Barker Award, St Kilda's award for best and fairest player, proceeded two nights after Frawley's death and was filled with tributes to him, including speeches from teammatesStewart Loewe andRobert Harvey.[37][38] The AFL announced that a moment of silence would be observed in Frawley's honour before both semifinals the following weekend (Geelong–West Coast andBrisbane–Greater Western Sydney), with all four teams also wearing black armbands.[39] TheMelbourne Storm andCanberra Raiders also observed a moment of silence for Frawley before their NRL qualifying final at AAMI Park.[40] AFL CEOGillon McLachlan also revealed that it was being considered that the Golden Fist award, an award for best defender that Frawley had famously created onBounce, should become an official AFL honour. A Change.org petition about the matter had garnered 33,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.[41]
Who was Danny Frawley? He was larger than life. He was the country kid. He was a footballer, he was our skipper, he was a coach, he was a spud farmer, a media personality...he was a husband, he was a dad, he was a brother, he was a friend to many, and he was one of my best mates...and he will always be my hero. When Matt Finnis (St Kilda CEO) then asked me yesterday if I'd like to pay tribute to Danny tonight at the best & fairest, I couldn't answer him...But after an hour or so by myself, I started to think, what would Spud want? What would he do? The answer was pretty obvious. "Put your suit on, roll up your sleeves, and get the bloody job done." That's just who he was.
Good morning. But it's not really. It's a time where we grapple and fumble around and search for a meaning that's not really there. It's an imprecise morning, one that we spend together and do our best.
Danny Frawley's death is a hammer blow to our community. Watching and reading and listening to all the reactions makes me think of the truism "The love you give is the love you get."
There's no solace at a time like this, but there is a collective embrace, and hopefully Anita and Chelsea, Danielle and Keeley can at least feel it.Danny was a great football person from the grassroots, to the top level. He belonged to many, from Bungaree to St Kilda and beyond.
In the media, he was a tremendous character, in the way that he gave of himself, to enhance your connection or enjoyment, and often at his own expense. He's done that for many years at Crocmedia and, in more recent times, on SEN. He maintained an infectious enthusiasm and vibrancy. It's the sort of thing people say, but you know that it's true, because you watched it and listened to it. When the footy got exciting, he was jumping, metaphorically and literally, all over the broadcast, and he could mangle the language in the most wonderful way. And I think he leaves us with "Yeah nah"...maybe it predates Danny, but he normalised it in our football world.
He was a latter day cyclist, in questionable Lycra, he was a hobby horse breeder, and he was an optimistic golfer. He was a friend to many, and I suspect you will feel that whether you knew him or not.
How footy touched his soul...well, that was evidence in the tears he shed for Teddy Whitten during that lap at the MCG, when he couldn't finish that famous induction speech for Tony Lockett and as he choked up honouring Trevor Barker just this year as he took his place in the Hall of Fame.
And now, those tears are for Spud.
[PlaysWhen the Saints Go Marching In]
They play that in the terraces at St Kilda games, and I suspect the next time it's done, it'll have additional poignancy and carry the images...
Both radio stations Frawley had worked at — Triple M and SEN — broadcast a special joint edition ofThe Saturday Rub in Frawley's honour co-hosted by friends and colleaguesJames Brayshaw,Brian Taylor,Damian Barrett andGarry Lyon.[43][44][45][46]
A private but broadcast memorial was held for Frawley, followed by the hearse travelling to Moorabbin Oval for a lap of honour.[47]
In November 2020, St Kilda and the Victorian and federal governments announced the plans for a $16 million (AUD) Moorabbin Oval centre, including classroom spaces, consultation suites and breakout areas to be named the Danny Frawley Centre for Health and Wellbeing.[48] The centre launched on 1 March 2022, with the attendees including St Kilda greats Loewe andNick Riewoldt, club CEO Matt Finnis, Frawley's broadcast colleagues Lyon andJason Dunstall, actor and former St Kilda #1 ticket holderEric Bana, AFL CEOGillon McLachlan,[49] Victorian Tourism MinisterMartin Pakula and SenatorJane Hume. Frawley's #2 was also retired by the club and hangs in the centre.[50] In January 2021, it was announced that Frawley's nephewJames, who had joined St Kilda after a brief retirement at the end of the 2020 season withHawthorn, would wear the #24 guernsey, which Danny had worn from 1985 to 1987 before switching to #2.[51]
In March 2021, St Kilda announced that their Round 2 game, beginning that season againstMelbourne, would be called "Spud's Game: Time 2 Talk"[52] in partnership withMovember to promote mental health. Prior to the match, the game was delayed by two minutes with Frawley's close friends Lyon, Loewe andTony Lockett paying tribute to Frawley in the middle of the ground and asking for those that were watching to check with their mates with both teams surrounding them and his family watching on.[53]
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