Andrew Williams (born 1 March 1979) is a former professional

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 for 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 ...

and

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...

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).

West Coast Eagles

Williams was recruited to the

in the

1997 AFL Draft The 1997 AFL Draft was held at the conclusion of the 1997 Australian Football League (AFL) season. A Pre-season Draft and the second Rookie Draft were held prior to the 1998 season. It is considered to have been one of the most successful draf ...

. He was rated in his younger days as a

half-forward In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-forward line refers to a position on the field of play. 3 players are positioned in the half-forward line, a left and right half-forward flank player, as well as a centre half-forward. A hal ...

flanker and winger and initially selected as a long-term prospect. Williams played 5 games in his debut season followed by 22 games, including two finals, in his second season. Williams played a further 57 games for West Coast over the following three seasons, which included playing all 22 games in 2001. Williams played a total of 84 games for the Eagles between 1998 and 2002.

Collingwood

He eventually returned to Victoria in 2003 when he was traded to Collingwood in return for

Damien Adkins Damien Adkins (born 9 March 1981) is an Australian rules footballer formerly with the Collingwood and West Coast Eagles Football Clubs in the AFL. Collingwood Adkins was drafted by Collingwood with pick 50 in the 1998 AFL Draft. He played h ...

. Williams had a solid first year for the Magpies, playing 22 games before suffering injury in the Qualifying Final against

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. As a result, he missed selection to Collingwoods

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

side but was controversially allowed to play in Williamstown's VFL Grand Final victory, his first game for the Seagulls.

Williamstown

Despite a good first year for Collingwood, Williams remained playing for Williamstown, Collingwoods then VFL affiliate, over the next 2 seasons and managed just 10 more AFL games between 2004 and 2005. He was delisted by Collingwood at the end of the 2005 season, but after his delisting, Williams continued to play for the Seagulls until 2008. Williams now coaches the Monbulk Football Club in the Outer East Football League.

External links

Andrew Williams at the Collingwood Football Club website
* * * 1979 births Living people West Coast Eagles players Collingwood Football Club players Williamstown Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Dandenong Stingrays players West Perth Football Club players East Perth Football Club players Claremont Football Club players 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub