Leigh Colbert (born 7 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Geelong Football Club and the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

in the Australian Football League (AFL).

AFL career

1993–1999: Geelong

He made his debut with Geelong in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

and became a fearless player, usually playing off half-back, but then found his way as a key-position player. He was awarded Geelong's captaincy in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

, but did not play a game that season due to injury. The falling out between the club and Colbert caused great controversy. He was traded for Cameron Mooney and draft picks that yielded, amongst others, six-time All Australian and two-time Best and Fairest winner Corey Enright. Mooney retired a dual premiership player with the Cats, and Enright retired as a three-time premiership player.

2000–2005: Kangaroos

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, Colbert moved to the

, mostly holding up full-back or centre half-back. In 2004, Colbert was appointed the Kangaroos delegate for the AFL Players Association (AFLPA). In 2005, Colbert announced his retirement.

Post-football career

In 2006, Colbert joined the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Footbal ...

as one of their back-room staff. It was on a part-time basis, based in Melbourne. He was a boundary rider for Fox Sports, including post-match interviews and one-on-one interviews for Fox Sports AFL of the Ablett brothers, and a one-on-one interview with Adam Simpson on his 250th game for the Kangaroos. In 2009, he was a flying instructor at Moorabbin Flight Services at Moorabbin Airport, and also a pilot for an air freight service at Moorabbin Airport. In 2020, he was announced as the new licensee of two

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...

franchises in Mildura and Irymple after the former licensees were ousted in a racism scandal.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colbert, Leigh Geelong Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club players South Bendigo Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) 1975 births Living people Victorian State of Origin players