Michael Allen Nunan (born 12 April 1949) 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 the

Sturt Football Club The Sturt Football Club, nicknamed The Double Blues, is a semi-professional Australian rules football club based in the suburb of Unley, South Australia, which plays in the South Australian National Football League. Founded in 1901 by the Stur ...

Norwood Football Club The Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Its home ground is Norwood Oval, Coopers Stadium (Norwood Oval), which is often referred ...

and the

North Adelaide Football Club The North Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Roosters, is an Australian rules football club affiliated with the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and SANFL Women's League (SANFLW). The club plays its home games at Prospect ...

in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL), as well as for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

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). Nunan had a highly decorated playing career, winning premierships with Sturt and Norwood before becoming coach of North Adelaide and leading the club to two premierships. He was also

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of City of Fitzroy, Fitzroy, the club is base ...

's last official AFL senior coach in 1996, resigning halfway through the season as news came out that Fitzroy's AFL operations would be taken over by

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, ...

and that the Bears would become the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

. Nunan was recognized for his achievements in South Australian football when he was among the inaugural inductees at the establishment of the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

in 2002.

SANFL career

Nunan played his football as a rover. He joined from

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an ex ...

in 1966 and during his 188 games with the Double Blues, he played in their 1969, 1970, 1974 and 1976 premiership sides. Having spent his whole playing career at Sturt under the tutelage of the legendary

Jack Oatey Jack Oatey (29 August 1920 – 26 February 1994) was an Australian rules football player and coach. Playing career Oatey played 181 games for the Norwood Football Club between 1940 and 1952 and acted as playing-coach from 1945 to 1952. Whil ...

, it was no surprise that Nunan was heavily influenced by him when he later became a coach. He played in the 1978 premiership side during the first of his two seasons at . He then coached

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

to premierships in 1987 and 1991 during his twelve seasons as senior coach. His solitary VFL senior game came while he was on

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

training in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. The previous week he had played in the reserves side while fellow Sturt footballer and

conscript Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

, Malcolm Greenslade, played in the senior side. The next week they both played in the seniors. Both then returned to the SANFL.

Coaching career

Fitzroy Football Club senior coach

Nunan was appointed senior coach of

for the 1996 season, when he replaced caretaker senior coach

Alan McConnell Alan John McConnell (born 30 March 1957) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the early 1980s and later coached Fitzroy. McConnell is currently serving as director of co ...

, who replaced

Bernie Quinlan Bernard Francis Quinlan (born 21 July 1951) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). One of a handful of players to have won a Brownlow ...

, after Quinlan was sacked in the middle of the 1995 season. Nunan was at the helm for Fitzroy's last ever AFL win, in Round 8 against at

Whitten Oval Whitten Oval (also known as Mission Whitten Oval under a naming rights agreement) is a stadium in the inner-western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Barkly Street, Footscray. It is the training and administrative headquart ...

on 16 May 1996. It was an emotional day for many Fitzroy fans, and he described it as "a relief and reward for those players who had worked very hard to improve their skill levels". After Fitzroy lost to Essendon in Round 14, 1996 and just 48 hours after the Fitzroy administrator at the time negotiated a deal with Brisbane Bears whereby Brisbane would take over Fitzroy's AFL operations, Nunan announced his resignation as senior coach of Fitzroy Football Club to the staff and players, which he had planned to do if the deal with Brisbane went ahead. As he left the room, he remembered that the club doorman, Tommy Couch, had taken a liking to Nunan's jacket and had asked him if he could have it if he couldn't fulfill his commitments. So he returned and handed Couch the jacket. Nunan was then replaced by

, who returned to the role in his second stint as caretaker senior coach of Fitzroy Football Club in the 1996 season for Fitzroy's last eight games within the AFL. At the end of the 1996 season, the Fitzroy Football Club's AFL operations were taken over by

, and Brisbane Bears then became

References

Bibliography

* Hogan P: ''The Tigers Of Old'', Richmond FC, Melbourne 1996

External links

SA Football Hall of Fame - Michael A Nunan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nunan, Michael Living people Sturt Football Club players Richmond Football Club players Norwood Football Club players North Adelaide Football Club players Fitzroy Football Club coaches North Adelaide Football Club coaches South Australian State of Origin players Australian rules footballers from South Australia South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 1949 births