Mark West (born 3 April 1973) 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 with 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 ...

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) during the 1990s. An

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

, West was from the Northern Territory and played with Darwin before embarking on a football journey which would see him play in three states. He joined the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL), licence in 1986, ...

in 1991 and played reserves football at the club for two seasons before continuing his career in South Australia with South Adelaide. He was recruited from South Adelaide to the AFL, with Footscray using the 43rd selection in the 1995 draft to secure his services. The dreadlocked West was already 23 when he made his senior AFL debut in 1996 and made only four appearances in his debut season. He struggled to make much of an impact in 1997 until the finals series, with a career high 24 disposals and two goals coming in the preliminary final loss to

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. With just under three minutes remaining, West received a handball inside the forward 50 and had a running shot at goal which missed to the left. Had he kicked the goal, the Bulldogs would have gone eight points up. West missed most of the

1998 AFL season The 1998 AFL season was the 102nd 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 sixt ...

with a shoulder injury but recovered in time to play in another preliminary final, where his club was again defeated by Adelaide. He contested the 2004 federal election as the Family First candidate for the seat of

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

, receiving 2.1% of the vote.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Mark 1973 births Western Bulldogs players South Adelaide Football Club players Darwin Football Club players Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football Living people Wanderers Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Darwin, Northern Territory