David Neitz (born 22 January 1975), is a retired Australian rules footballer. The strongly built centre half back who became a full forward was the longest-serving captain in the history of the Melbourne Football Club and the first Melbourne player to achieve the 300-game milestone. He is considered one of the greatest ever players to come out of the island state of

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. Neitz was born in Ulverstone, Tasmania, he was groomed as a potential Australian Football League player from the age of 15 and targeted by the recruiters at the Melbourne Football Club, entering the AFL in 1993 as a key position player, he soon became one of Melbourne's best young prospects. In 1994, Neitz was named to his first

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

State of Origin team, and he went one step further in 1995 by making the

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

as well as the Victorian side. After the retirement of Demons great Garry Lyon, Neitz moved to the full-forward position and began his successful run as one of the AFL's elite goal scorers. He has led Melbourne's goalkicking seven times (1996, 1997 (equal), 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006), and in 2002 won the prestigious Coleman Medal for leading the league in goals, making him not only the first Melbourne player to do so, but also the first Melbourne player to lead the competition's goalkicking since the 1940s. On 8 April 2005, Neitz became the 40th person in

VFL/AFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...

history to kick 500 career goals. Neitz was appointed captain of Melbourne in 2000, and on 8 April 2005 he broke the club record for most games captained (previously held by Garry Lyon with 112 games as captain). He has been an

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

in 1995 and 2002, and played for Australia in the 1998 International Rules Series and 2002 International Rules Series against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In 2002, Neitz also won his first Melbourne Best and Fairest Award, the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal. On 8 April 2005, Neitz played his 250th career AFL game, and in 2006 signed a two-year contract extension seeing him through to the end of 2007. Neitz became Melbourne's all-time leading goal-kicker on 19 May 2006, surpassing Norm Smith's previous record of 546 goals. Two weeks later, he broke Robert Flower's long standing record of 272 games, making him the longest serving Demon in history. He played his 300th AFL game for the Demons in the defeat against Collingwood on 17 August 2007.

Statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 38 , , 20 , , 17 , , 15 , , 161 , , 96 , , 257 , , 94 , , 12 , , 0.9 , , 0.8 , , 8.1 , , 4.8 , , 12.9 , , 4.7 , , 0.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 24 , , 2 , , 2 , , 189 , , 123 , , 312 , , 81 , , 22 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 7.9 , , 5.1 , , 13.0 , , 3.4 , , 0.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 22 , , 33 , , 25 , , 232 , , 67 , , 299 , , 140 , , 18 , , 1.5 , , 1.1 , , 10.5 , , 3.0 , , 13.6 , , 6.4 , , 0.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 22 , , 56 , , 26 , , 181 , , 66 , , 247 , , 110 , , 22 , , 2.5 , , 1.2 , , 8.2 , , 3.0 , , 11.2 , , 5.0 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 17 , , 30 , , 22 , , 129 , , 34 , , 163 , , 77 , , 9 , , 1.8 , , 1.3 , , 7.6 , , 2.0 , , 9.6 , , 4.5 , , 0.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 14 , , 33 , , 21 , , 115 , , 42 , , 157 , , 57 , , 14 , , 2.4 , , 1.5 , , 8.2 , , 3.0 , , 11.2 , , 4.1 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 18 , , 46 , , 21 , , 153 , , 51 , , 204 , , 92 , , 17 , , 2.6 , , 1.2 , , 8.5 , , 2.8 , , 11.3 , , 5.1 , , 0.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 21 , , 24 , , 19 , , 201 , , 67 , , 268 , , 126 , , 23 , , 1.1 , , 0.9 , , 9.6 , , 3.2 , , 12.8 , , 6.0 , , 1.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 22 , , 38 , , 34 , , 206 , , 61 , , 267 , , 132 , , 21 , , 1.7 , , 1.5 , , 9.4 , , 2.8 , , 12.1 , , 6.0 , , 1.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 24 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 82 , , bgcolor="CFECEC", 38 , , 178 , , 50 , , 228 , , 132 , , 23 , , bgcolor="DD6E81", 3.4 , , bgcolor="CFECEC", 1.6 , , 7.4 , , 2.1 , , 9.5 , , 5.5 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 22 , , 65 , , 28 , , 147 , , 38 , , 185 , , 101 , , 22 , , 3.0 , , 1.3 , , 6.7 , , 1.7 , , 8.4 , , 4.6 , , 1.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 21 , , 69 , , 47 , , 155 , , 32 , , 187 , , 99 , , 19 , , 3.3 , , 2.2 , , 7.4 , , 1.5 , , 8.9 , , 4.7 , , 0.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 18 , , 39 , , 23 , , 118 , , 27 , , 145 , , 67 , , 20 , , 2.2 , , 1.3 , , 6.6 , , 1.5 , , 8.1 , , 3.7 , , 1.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2006 , style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 21 , , 68 , , 26 , , 163 , , 41 , , 204 , , 106 , , 16 , , 3.2 , , 1.2 , , 7.8 , , 2.0 , , 9.7 , , 5.0 , , 0.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 15 , , 26 , , 16 , , 100 , , 33 , , 133 , , 68 , , 6 , , 1.7 , , 1.1 , , 6.7 , , 2.2 , , 8.9 , , 4.5 , , 0.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 9 , , 5 , , 3 , , 5 , , 27 , , 8 , , 35 , , 20 , , 4 , , 0.6 , , 1.0 , , 5.4 , , 1.6 , , 7.0 , , 4.0 , , 0.8 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 306 ! 631 ! 368 ! 2455 ! 836 ! 3291 ! 1502 ! 268 ! 2.1 ! 1.2 ! 8.0 ! 2.7 ! 10.8 ! 4.9 ! 0.9

Honours and achievements

*Individual ** Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal: 2002 ** Coleman Medal: 2002 ** Melbourne F.C. Captain: 2000-2008 **

: 1995, 2002 ** Melbourne F.C. Leading Goalkicker: 1996–1997, 1999, 2002–2004, 2006 ** Australian Representative Honours in

International Rules Football International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was develop ...

: 1998, 2002 ** AFL Rising Star Nominee: 1993 (Round 6)

Retirement

Due to a broken disc in the back of his neck, and after playing only five games in 2008, he finally pulled the plug on his AFL career as he announced his immediate retirement on 19 May 2008. In the round nine 2008 match Melbourne vs Hawthorn after the match Neitz was given a standing ovation by the players and the fans. He ended his playing career with several Melbourne records that he'd broken during recent seasons, three in particular: Most games (one of only two players to play 300 games for Melbourne), most goals, and longest-serving captain.David Neitz calls it a day
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neitz, David 1975 births All-Australians (AFL) Australian rules footballers from Tasmania Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Coleman Medal winners Victorian State of Origin players Australian people of German descent Living people Melbourne Football Club players Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy winners People from Ulverstone, Tasmania Melbourne Football Club captains Australia international rules football team players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees