Ezra Poyas (born 24 March 1981) is 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 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) and is a former captain of

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) club

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places Australia * Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality * Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station * ...

. Poyas is a former captain of the Victoria Metropolitan side at both Under 18 & Under 16 age groups, and is Jewish.

Career

Poyas captained Vic Metro at both Under-18 and Under-16 age level, and was also selected as an Under-18

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, 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-perfo ...

and in the

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

Team of the Year in 1999. He was drafted by

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

at Pick 22 in the 1999 National Draft from the

Sandringham Dragons Sandringham Dragons is an Australian rules football club playing in the Talent League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They are based at the Moorabbin Oval in Moorabbin, Victoria, representin ...

, and went on to play nine games as a forward from 2000–2002, however a serious shoulder injury saw Poyas delisted by the Tigers at the end of the 2002 season. While playing for Richmond's ,

Coburg Coburg ( , ) is a Town#Germany, town located on the Itz (river), Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Ernestine duchies, Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only ...

, Poyas was a joint-winner (with 's Brett Backwell) in 2001 of the

J. J. Liston Trophy The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (VFL), which was formerly known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA). It is named after J. J. Liston, J.J. Liston, a busine ...

, awarded annually to the

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

player of the VFL. Ezra was drafted again by Melbourne at Pick 43 in the 2002 Rookie Draft, however did not get the opportunity to play a senior game with the Demons. He was delisted at the end of 2003, despite finishing third in VFL-affiliate

's Best and Fairest count. Poyas remained at Sandringham as a VFL-listed player, and played in all three of Sandringham's hat-trick premierships wins (2004–06). He was selected for the VFL representative team that played a

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

team in May 2007. In 2012, Poyas played at

Broadbeach Broadbeach is a Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Broadbeach had a population of 6,786 people. Geography The Broadbeach stretch was originally coastal forest. This gradual ...

in the NEAFL Northern Conference (previously known as the QAFL), where he finished runner up in the league Best and Fairest, despite missing six games throughout the season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poyas, Ezra 1981 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Living people Sandringham Football Club players Richmond Football Club players J. J. Liston Trophy winners Sandringham Dragons players Broadbeach Australian Football Club players Jewish Australian sportspeople