Cameron Alex McCarthy (1 April 1995 − 9 May 2024) was an

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

Greater Western Sydney Giants The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS or Giants) are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney Olympic Park which repres ...

and

Fremantle Football Club 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

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).

Early career

McCarthy came from a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

background and focused on becoming a footballer after being the last player chosen in the Western Australia under-18 team in 2013; this was due to his talents in both cricket and football. He chose the AFL pathway after some inspiration from a South Fremantle colts coach. He had previously played junior football for South Coogee. He came to prominence with an impressive

AFL Under-18 Championships The AFL National Championships is an annual Australian national underage representative Australian rules football tournament. Since taking over as national governing body in 1995, the AFL has gradually restructured the competition into a primar ...

, with the highlight being when he kicked the winning after-the-siren goal for

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

against

Vic Country The Victoria Australian rules football team, known colloquially as the Big V, is the state representative side of Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, in the sport of Australian rules football. The Big V has a proud history, dominating th ...

in Round 4 of the Championships before suffering a broken leg in the final round against

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

AFL career

McCarthy was drafted by the

with pick 14 in the 2013 AFL draft. He made his debut in Round 23,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, against the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium, currently known as Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, and commonly shortened as The Etihad, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City, with a domestic football capacity of 53,600, making it the 7t ...

; McCarthy started the game as the substitute but kicked a long goal from the boundary line with his first kick in AFL football. On 10 September 2015, news broke that McCarthy was requesting a trade to his home state of

; the next day, Greater Western Sydney "categorically rejected" his trade request due to him being contracted until the end of the 2017 season. Despite persistent efforts by during the trade period, he remained at Greater Western Sydney. After the failed bid to move to Fremantle during the home period, McCarthy decided to return to Western Australia due to

homesickness Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...

and did not play for the entirety of the

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

. He was officially traded to Fremantle during the 2016 trade period. In 2017, McCarthy kicked 25 goals from 19 games. He finished first in Fremantle's leading goalkicking. He was suspended for two weeks in round 15 for careless contact with St Kilda's Sam Gilbert. He was also surprisingly omitted from the Round 23 team who took on Essendon. His most notable performance came in Round 4, where he kicked a late goal with a toe-poke deep in the goal square, with two minutes remaining, to lead Fremantle to a two-point victory over Melbourne, in Melbourne. Another impressive performance was a four-goal haul, with 18 disposals, against Gold Coast in Round 20 at Domain Stadium. In 2019, ahead of the Round 1 clash with North Melbourne, McCarthy was called up to the senior team, seemingly as a replacement for new recruit

Jesse Hogan Jesse Hogan (born 12 February 1995) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL). A key forward, Hogan is tall and weighs . He was a standout basketballer ...

, despite not playing in either pre-season match. He was arguably Fremantle's best player in the demolition of North Melbourne in a career-best performance, kicking five goals and collecting 20 disposals. In August 2020, McCarthy was notified by the Fremantle Football Club that he would not be receiving a contract for the

2021 AFL season The 2021 AFL season was the 125th 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 feature ...

; McCarthy and Fremantle mutually parted ways. McCarthy returned to

South Fremantle Football Club South Fremantle Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Fremantle, Western Australia. The club plays in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the WAFL Women's (WAFLW), commonly going by the nickname the ''Bulldogs ...

in the WAFL for two seasons, but he walked away from the sport after managing just 10 games in that time.

Personal life and death

McCarthy was educated a
Emmanuel Catholic College
in

Success Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person mi ...

. He left school at 16 to take up a plumbing apprenticeship prior to being drafted. After collapsing during a training session in 2020, McCarthy was diagnosed with

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

. On 9 May 2024, McCarthy was found dead at a property in Lake Coogee, a suburb of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. He was 29.

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2020 season'' , - ,

, , 25 , , 1 , , 1 , , 0 , , 3 , , 2 , , 5 , , 2 , , 2 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.0 , , 2.0 , , 5.0 , , 2.0 , , 2.0 , - ,

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, , 25 , , 20 , , 35 , , 14 , , 132 , , 48 , , 180 , , 73 , , 24 , , 1.8 , , 0.7 , , 6.6 , , 2.4 , , 9.0 , , 3.6 , , 1.2 , - ,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, , 25 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ,

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, , 23 , , 19 , , 25 , , 19 , , 150 , , 65 , , 215 , , 65 , , 45 , , 1.3 , , 1 , , 7.9 , , 3.4 , , 11.3 , , 3.4 , , 2.4 , - ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, , 23 , , 17 , , 19 , , 17 , , 107 , , 62 , , 169 , , 65 , , 30 , , 1.1 , , 1 , , 6.3 , , 3.6 , , 9.9 , , 3.8 , , 1.8 , - ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, , 23 , , 12 , , 19 , , 7 , , 94 , , 42 , , 136 , , 49 , , 15 , , 1.6 , , 0.6 , , 7.8 , , 3.5 , , 11.3 , , 4.1 , , 1.3 , - ,

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 ...

, , 23 , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , , 8 , , 3 , , 11 , , 3 , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , , 8 , , 3 , , 11 , , 3 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 70 ! 99 ! 58 ! 494 ! 222 ! 716 ! 257 ! 117 ! 1.4 ! 0.8 ! 7.1 ! 3.2 ! 10.2 ! 3.7 ! 1.7

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Cameron 1995 births 2024 deaths South Fremantle Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Greater Western Sydney Giants players Fremantle Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players People with epilepsy