Andrew Donnelly (born 29 March 1973) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played with the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). Although Donnelly, a half forward, was drafted by Sydney in the

1992 AFL Draft The 1992 AFL draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League. It consisted of the main national draft, the pre-season draft an ...

he remained at WAFL club Subiaco in 1993. He however made the move to Sydney in 1994 but only played in their reserves and returned to Subiaco in 1995. After winning Subiaco's 1995 "Best and Fairest" award, Donnelly was signed up West Coast through the pre-season draft. Donnelly was a solid contributor to West Coast in their run to the second week of finals in 1996, playing 20 games. He had 118 marks, the second most by a West Coast player and kicked 28 goals, the third most. In just his third league game, against

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, he kicked four goals and had 25 disposals to earn best on ground honours at the Brownlow Medal night. He was awarded the best first year player award for 1996 by the Eagles, beating

Ben Cousins Benjamin Luke Cousins (born 30 June 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer and media personality who played for and in the Australian Football League (AFL). Cousins is listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the fifty ...

who also made his debut that year and won the 1996 AFL Rising Star award. He struggled with various injuries during the rest of his time with the Eagles and retired in 2001, after another season playing for Subiaco. He is became the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of insurance firm Australian Reliance. The company later collapsed and Donnelly and his other directors were accused of misappropriate funds and in 2021 he was found guilty of breaching his duties as a director.

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* * * * https://waflfootyfacts.net/player/stats.php?PlayerID=1749 {{DEFAULTSORT:Donnelly, Andrew 1973 births West Coast Eagles players Subiaco Football Club players Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Western Australian State of Origin players