Gerard Healy (born 1 March 1961) 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 and commentator. Healy attended St Bede's College in Mentone, where he was the senior football captain. Gerard is a trained physiotherapist.

VFL career

Melbourne Demons

Beginning his career with the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

in 1979, Healy played mostly in a

forward pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

role in attack before switching to an on-baller/midfielder role and establishing himself as one of the premier ball winners in the competition. He won Melbourne's

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 in 1984.

Sydney Swans

He left the Demons in 1985, after playing 130 games, moving to the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

at the beginning of the 1986 season. He immediately made an impact at the Swans, winning best and fairests in his first three years with the team – 1986, 1987, 1988. Season 1988 was to prove the finest of his career. In addition to the Swans' Best & Fairest award, Healy took home the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

as the VFL's fairest and best player, the VFL Players Association MVP and the Simpson Medal for best on ground in the Victoria vs Western Australia state game played in Perth. He retired from Sydney in 1991 due to a serious wrist injury. He was later recognised as one of Sydney's greats, being named in their Team of the Century. Following his forced retirement, Collingwood picked Healy in the 1991 AFL draft on the chance that his injury would recover but Healy never played another AFL match. In 2000, Healy was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

. On 18 July 2009, he was also inducted into the Sydney Swans Hall of Fame.

Playing statistics

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1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 21 , , 10 , , 19 , , 244 , , 71 , , 315 , , 55 , , , , 0.5 , , 0.9 , , 11.6 , , 3.4 , , 15.0 , , 2.6 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 7 , , 4 , , 9 , , 123 , , 52 , , 175 , , 36 , , , , 0.6 , , 1.3 , , 17.6 , , 7.4 , , 25.0 , , 5.1 , , , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 22 , , 27 , , 14 , , 295 , , 157 , , 452 , , 92 , , , , 1.2 , , 0.6 , , 13.4 , , 7.1 , , 20.5 , , 4.2 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 21 , , 77 , , 55 , , 263 , , 89 , , 352 , , 99 , , , , 3.7 , , 2.6 , , 12.5 , , 4.2 , , 16.8 , , 4.7 , , , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 19 , , 37 , , 41 , , 198 , , 72 , , 270 , , 98 , , , , 1.9 , , 2.2 , , 10.4 , , 3.8 , , 14.2 , , 5.2 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 19 , , 25 , , 304 , , 133 , , 437 , , 81 , , , , 1.0 , , 1.3 , , 15.2 , , 6.7 , , 21.9 , , 4.1 , , , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 15 , , 18 , , 301 , , 125 , , 426 , , 84 , , , , 0.8 , , 0.9 , , 15.1 , , 6.3 , , 21.3 , , 4.2 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 22 , , 26 , , 21 , , 344 , , 212 , , 556 , , 82 , , , , 1.2 , , 1.0 , , 15.6 , , 9.6 , , 25.3 , , 3.7 , , , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 22 , , 18 , , 302 , , 185 , , 487 , , 65 , , 37 , , 1.1 , , 0.9 , , 15.1 , , 9.3 , , 24.4 , , 3.3 , , 1.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1988 , style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 20 , , 26 , , 34 , , 351 , , 218 , , 569 , , 89 , , 25 , , 1.3 , , 1.7 , , 17.6 , , 10.9 , , 28.5 , , 4.5 , , 1.3 , -style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 8 , , 6 , , 4 , , 150 , , 64 , , 214 , , 22 , , 9 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 18.8 , , 8.0 , , 26.8 , , 2.8 , , 1.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 11 , , 7 , , 12 , , 212 , , 100 , , 312 , , 37 , , 12 , , 0.6 , , 1.1 , , 19.3 , , 9.1 , , 28.4 , , 3.4 , , 1.1 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 211 ! 276 ! 270 ! 3087 ! 1478 ! 4565 ! 840 ! 83 ! 1.3 ! 1.3 ! 14.6 ! 7.0 ! 21.6 ! 4.0 ! 1.4

Honours and achievements

Broadcasting career

After retiring in 1990, Healy became an commentator with the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

on their AFL coverage. Healy was a special comments in 5 AFL grand finals with Seven. On radio, he has also been a long-time special comments man on 3AW for their AFL coverage, as well as hosting '' Sports Today'' since 1996. He gave a heartfelt farewell message on the show to his co-host David Hookes after his death in 2004. Hookes was later replaced on the show by Dwayne Russell. His audio commentary also has been used for

computer game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

s, including as ''AFL 2007'' along with Dennis Cometti. Following Seven losing the AFL rights, Healy joined

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

as a special commentator for the 2002 & 2003 seasons, before moving to Fox Footy Channel from 2004 in the same role until its closure in 2006 as well as hosting '' On the Couch'' in which he did during his time on Nine. He continued his commentary role for AFL matches with

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

from 2007 and since 2012 on second version of

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Australia operated out of its Melbou ...

. Healy is referred to as “G” by some of his colleagues, including fellow ex-AFL players Ben Dixon and Nick Dal Santo.

Personal life

Gerard Healy is married to Lisa (née Gluyas) and together they have three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Healy, Gerard 1961 births All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules football commentators Brownlow Medal winners Leigh Matthews Trophy winners Victorian State of Origin players Bob Skilton Medal winners Living people Melbourne Football Club players Sydney Swans players Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy winners Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) E. J. Whitten Medal winners Australia international rules football team players 3AW presenters People educated at St Bede's College (Mentone)