Bradley Close (born 30 July 1998) is an

Australian rules footballer 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 ...

who plays for the

Geelong Cats The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Kardinia Park (stadium), Kardinia Park in South Geelong, Victoria, South Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The club compe ...

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). He was recruited by the

with the 14th pick in the 2019 rookie draft.

Early football

Close played local football for the

North Gambier Football Club The North Gambier Football and Netball Club is an Australian rules football and netball club currently competing in the Limestone Coast Football League. Since the creation of this league, North Gambier have won eight senior premierships. Histor ...

. He also played in the

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

for the

Glenelg Football Club The Glenelg Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or the Bays, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the South Australian National Football League. Their home ground is Stratarama Stadium (formerly Glenelg Oval), located in the so ...

in the 2019 season, where he kicked a total of 13 goals over 21 matches, while also winning the 2019 SANFL premiership

AFL career

Close debuted in Geelong's thirty-two point win over the

Fremantle Dockers The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

in the eighth round of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featur ...

. Close kicked his first goal with his first kick just one minute into the game, also picking up 14 disposals, 3 marks and 4 tackles. Close took home the Best Young Player Award for the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Kardinia Park in South Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

at the conclusion of the season. Close signed a contract extension with the Cats in November 2020. Geelong's general manager of football, Simon Lloyd, said "Brad also played well as a forward and we see him having a good future at AFL level. He will continue to develop his game through his strong drive and professionalism and we look forward to seeing Brad further enhance his game in 2021."

Statistics

''Updated to the end of round 6, 2023''. , - ,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, , , , 45 , 6 , , 9 , , 8 , , 40 , , 38 , , 78 , , 19 , , 10 , , 1.5 , , 1.3 , , 6.6 , , 6.3 , , 13.0 , , 3.1 , , 1.6 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 61 !! 52 !! 40 !! 382 !! 451 !! 833 !! 178 !! 199 !! 0.8 !! 0.6 !! 6.2 !! 7.3 !! 13.6 !! 2.9 !! 3.2

Honours and achievements

Team *

AFL Premiership This page is a complete chronological listing of VFL/AFL premiers. The Australian Football League (AFL), known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) until 1989, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football. The inaugur ...

(

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football club championship trophy, awarded each year to the club with the best aggregate performance across the Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) seasons. The trophy was inaugur ...

():

Individual * Geelong F.C. Best Young Player Award: 2020

References

External links

* * * 1998 births Living people Geelong Football Club players Geelong Football Club premiership players Glenelg Football Club players Australian rules footballers from South Australia VFL/AFL premiership players {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub