Geoff Cunningham (born 7 January 1959) 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 for St Kilda in the

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).

Career

Early days

Cunningham was originally recruited from

Golden Point The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn matches in a number of sports. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal. Rugby league Australia The golden point is used to determine a winner (where a ...

in Ballarat on match permits, but was given a clearance to play the

1978 VFL season The 1978 VFL season was the 82nd season of the Victorian Football League (1897–1989), Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 1 Ap ...

. Originally wearing number 25 for St Kilda, he was asked to give it up for former Carlton great,

Alex Jesaulenko Oleksandr Vasiliovych "Alex" Jesaulenko ( ; , ; born 2 August 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer and who played for the Carlton Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also served as a ...

, who had left the Blues in 1980 – after coaching the 1979 premiership – to captain-coach the Saints. Cunningham was handed the number 5 guernsey and made it his own for the next decade.

Honours

Cunningham played during an era of little club success, which included St Kilda earning four successive wooden spoons from 1983 until 1986. However, the tough wingman was a rare shining light. His rivalry with the young Swan, David Rhys-Jones, was highly anticipated in the days of one-on-one match-ups. With champion Trevor Barker regularly missing games through chronic injury, Cunningham was often the only Saint selected to play for Victoria. Debuting in 1982, Cunningham played eight State of Origin games against South Australia and Western Australia. Cunningham, perhaps surprisingly, never won a club

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 ...

award.

Family

Geoff Cunningham was joined by his younger brother, Daryl, (Fader) at St Kilda in 1983. The two were physically confronting together against opposition sides and proved intimidating. Often when one was in a scuffle, the other was close behind in support. Daryl was axed after four seasons and found his way to Essendon after Kevin Sheedy invited him down or pre-season when spotted him watching a practice match involving Essendon and St Kilda.

Final days

Cunningham's last game was in Round 12, 1989 against Hawthorn at a packed Moorabbin. It coincided with coach and legend, Darrel Baldock's decision to step aside after battling health problems. Cunningham's teammate, Ken Sheldon, was geared to take over the coaching reins with a new game plan. Aged 31 for the next season, Cunningham decided to retire after 224 games. Cunningham is one of only four VFL/AFL players, along with former teammate Trevor Barker, to have played 200 games without experiencing a final. Two seasons later St Kilda participated in its first final series since 1973. He would go on to coach

Traralgon Traralgon ( , ) is a city located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia and the most populous city in the City of Latrobe and the region. The urban population of Traralgon at the ...

in the Latrobe Valley to successive premierships, and was the club's senior coach in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, the first of its two seasons in the

. Cunningham now lives in Brisbane.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Geoff 1959 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Ballarat St Kilda Football Club players Golden Point Football Club players Maffra Football Club coaches Traralgon Football Club coaches Victorian State of Origin players