Peter Lori Sumich (born 11 January 1968) 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 represented 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) and in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Sumich made his debut for South Fremantle in 1986, having also played

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

for the Australian national under-19 team. After leading the club's goalkicking in 1988, Sumich was selected with a pre-draft selection by 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 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

prior to the 1988 National Draft. He made his debut for West Coast the following season.He established himself as the team's first-choice

full-forward Full-forward is a position in Australian rules football and Gaelic football with a key focus on kicking goals. The Coleman Medal is awarded to the player, often a full-forward, who has kicked the most goals in an Australian Football League seaso ...

, leading the goalkicking for six consecutive seasons between 1989 and 1994. Sumich played in West Coast's

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and 1994 premiership sides, before retiring from AFL football at the end of the 1997 season. In 1998, he was co-captain of South Fremantle, and led the club's goalkicking in what was his final year of playing football. During this time, Sumich also represented

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

in five State of Origin and

interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...

matches. After his retirement from playing, Sumich coached South Fremantle between

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and 2001, before signing as an assistant coach at West Coast, where he served in that role from 2002 to 2011, before joining Fremantle as an assistant coach. In total, he kicked 514 goals, a club record, from 150 games for West Coast, leading the club's goalkicking on a record seven occasions. After kicking 111 goals during the 1991 season, Sumich became the first Eagles player, and the first left-footer, to kick more than 100 goals in a season.

Playing career

Originally playing for the Cockburn Junior Football Club, Sumich represented the Western Australia Under-18 team which won the 1985

Teal Cup The AFL National Championships is an annual Australian national underage representative Australian rules football tournament. Since taking over as national governing body in 1995, the AFL has gradually restructured the competition into a primar ...

. He made his debut for in 1986. As well as playing football, Sumich was also a noted under-age cricketer, playing three

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

and three

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s for the

Australia Under-19 cricket team The Australian Under-19 cricket team have been playing official Under-19 test matches since 1978. Former captains include Stuart Law, Damien Martyn, Brad Haddin, Nathan Hauritz and Cameron White who have all gone on to play international crick ...

in 1987 as a

left-arm orthodox Left-arm orthodox spin or left-arm off spin, also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of spin bowling in cricket. Bowlers using this technique bowl with their left-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery spins ...

spinner. Sumich also attended the

Western Australian Institute of Sport The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1983 by the Government of Western Australia to support athletes in Western Australia. The founding director was Wally Foreman who held the position for 17 ye ...

. Sumich was selected by the

with a pre-draft selection before the 1988 National Draft. He made his debut for the club in round one of the

1989 VFL season The 1989 VFL season was the 93rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition and administrative body in Victoria and, by reason of it featuring clubs from New South Wales, Queens ...

against , recording 10 disposals. After kicking one goal in the first three games, Sumich was dropped back to South Fremantle, but returned in round seven, and played each of the remaining games for West Coast. He finished with 45 goals for the season to be the club's leading goalkicker, which included four hauls of more than five goals. Against in round 12 he kicked eight goals, setting a record for the most goals kicked in a match by a West Coast player. In 1991, Sumich kicked 111 goals to finish second in the

Coleman Medal The Coleman Medal is an Australian rules football award given annually to the Australian Football League (AFL) player who kicks the most Laws of Australian rules football#Scoring, goals in the Australian Football League#Premiership season, home- ...

Tony Lockett Anthony Howard Lockett (born 9 March 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Nicknamed "Plugger", he played as a full forward, full-forwar ...

, establishing records as the only West Coast Eagles player to kick more than 100 goals in a season and becoming the first left-footer to kick more than 100 goals. His total of 89 behinds for the season is also a VFL/AFL record. Against Footscray in round 13 he kicked 13.3, surpassing his previous record for most goals in a game (later topped by Scott Cummings in 2000 with 14.1). He also kicked five goals in West Coast's Grand Final loss to . Sumich was a member of West Coast's

and

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

premiership victories over , kicking six goals in the 1992 Grand Final and two goals in the 1994 Grand Final. In Round 18 of the

1996 AFL season The 1996 AFL season was the 100th 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 six ...

, Sumich kicked six goals in a stirring six-point victory over , but was reported by umpire Greg Scroop for allegedly striking

Damien Hardwick Damien Patrick Hardwick (born 18 August 1972) is a current Australian rules football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League. He is the former senior coach of the Richmond Football ...

, and was suspended for two matches. Sumich finished his career in 1997 as West Coast's all-time leading goalkicker, kicking 514 goals from 150 games at an average of 3.43 goals per game. He also holds the record for the most goals kicked at the

WACA Ground The WACA Ground () is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. The stadium's name derives from the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA). The WACA has been referred to as Western Australia' ...

– 101 goals from 29 games. Sumich had been playing on-and-off for South Fremantle since he was recruited by West Coast, mainly when recovering from injury or out of form, but returned to the club full-time in 1998, serving as co-captain with Peter Worsfold. He played 17 games for the club in 1998, kicking 25 goals to finish as the club's leading goalkicker, and retired at the end of the season.

Coaching career

Sumich served as coach of South Fremantle in 2000 and 2001, taking his club to a

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

in 2001, which the club lost to . He accepted a role as an assistant coach at the West Coast Eagles when his premiership teammate John Worsfold was appointed senior coach in 2002. Sumich served in this position for ten years until 2011, which included the club's 2006 premiership victory. The

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

announced in October 2011 that Sumich would be joining the club as an assistant coach under

Ross Lyon Ross Lyon (born 8 November 1966) is a former Australian rules football player and the current senior coach of the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously coached St Kilda from 2007 to 2011 and the Fremantle ...

. He left Fremantle at the end of the 2016 season.

Playing statistics

: , - style="background-color: #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 ...

, , , 4 , , 19 , , 45 , , 28 , , 200 , , 27 , , 227 , , 93 , , 7 , , 2.4 , , 1.5 , , 10.5 , , 1.4 , , 11.9 , , 4.9 , , 0.4 , - ! 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 ...

, , , 4 , , 23 , , 90 , , 61 , , 205 , , 32 , , 237 , , 139 , , 12 , , 3.9 , , 2.7 , , 8.9 , , 1.4 , , 10.3 , , 6.0 , , 0.5 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

, , , 4 , , 25 , , 111 , , 89 , , 297 , , 34 , , 331 , , 171 , , 19 , , 4.4 , , 3.6 , , 11.9 , , 1.4 , , 13.2 , , 6.8 , , 0.8 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , , , 4 , , 19 , , 82 , , 46 , , 162 , , 13 , , 175 , , 87 , , 12 , , 4.3 , , 2.4 , , 8.5 , , 0.7 , , 9.2 , , 4.6 , , 0.6 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, , , 4 , , 21 , , 76 , , 57 , , 174 , , 23 , , 197 , , 100 , , 9 , , 3.6 , , 2.7 , , 8.3 , , 1.1 , , 9.4 , , 4.8 , , 0.4 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , , , 4 , , 18 , , 49 , , 42 , , 115 , , 7 , , 122 , , 61 , , 12 , , 2.7 , , 2.3 , , 6.4 , , 0.4 , , 6.8 , , 3.4 , , 0.7 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, , , 4 , , 5 , , 7 , , 3 , , 15 , , 2 , , 17 , , 5 , , 7 , , 1.4 , , 0.6 , , 3.0 , , 0.4 , , 3.4 , , 1.0 , , 1.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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 ...

, , , 4 , , 7 , , 21 , , 11 , , 45 , , 5 , , 50 , , 25 , , 7 , , 3.0 , , 1.6 , , 6.4 , , 0.7 , , 7.1 , , 3.6 , , 1.0 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, , , 4 , , 13 , , 33 , , 17 , , 64 , , 13 , , 77 , , 31 , , 7 , , 2.5 , , 1.3 , , 4.9 , , 1.0 , , 5.9 , , 2.4 , , 0.5 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 150 ! 514 ! 354 ! 1277 ! 156 ! 1433 ! 712 ! 92 ! 3.4 ! 2.4 ! 8.5 ! 1.0 ! 9.6 ! 4.7 ! 0.6

References

External links

* * *
Fremantle Football Club coaching profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumich, Peter 1968 births Living people Australian people of Croatian descent Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia South Fremantle Football Club coaches South Fremantle Football Club players West Coast Eagles players West Coast Eagles premiership players West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Western Australian Institute of Sport alumni Western Australian State of Origin players VFL/AFL premiership players