Samuel Fisher (born 10 July 1982) is a former professional

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

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fro ...

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). In May 2024, Fisher was sentenced to a maximum of more than five years' imprisonment after being convicted of

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

Early life

Between the ages of 17 and 19, Fisher was a promising junior

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

er and played off a handicap of 1. He won the Riverland Tyre and Mag Boxing Day Classic four times, twice with his father Terry and twice with his brother Ben. However, Fisher gave away a possible career in golf for AFL football. Fisher began playing Australian rules in South Australia with West Adelaide, where he was first identified by AFL scouts at the age of 21.

AFL career

Draft and debut

The versatile defender was selected as pick number 55 in the

2003 AFL Draft The 2003 AFL draft was the 2003 instance of the AFL draft, the annual draft (sports), draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League. The 2003 d ...

. Fisher made his debut in Round 7, 2004, after

injuries Injury is physiological damage to the living tissue of any organism, whether in humans, in other animals, or in plants. Injuries can be caused in many ways, including mechanically with penetration by sharp objects such as teeth or with b ...

to other key defenders meant he was required for the team. St Kilda was in a strong position when he made his debut, having won the pre-season Wizard Home Loans Cup, and they were undefeated in first position in the pre-season premiership. The Saints had strung together 10 consecutive wins when including the pre-season tournament. St Kilda defeated Fremantle in Perth by 23 points. He didn't play again until Round 15, and he played six matches in a row through to Round 20. It provided more stability to the team after a difficult run of matches, and St Kilda eventually made it to the top 4 for the 2004 Finals series. Fisher did not play another match for the season after Round 20, watching on as the Saints played in the Qualifying Final, Semi-Final, and Preliminary Final in the first 3 weeks of the Finals series.

First finals match

In 2005, Fisher took a major step in his career and improved dramatically to hold down a regular spot in the Saints' defence, playing 21 matches. He generally played on the third-best forward of the opposition and began to provide prolific running from the half-back line. Despite some obvious difficulties during the year, the Saints qualified for the finals in 4th position. Fisher was part of the team that defeated the Minor Premiers Adelaide in the 1st Qualifying Final in Adelaide. He racked up 22 disposals in the match, which secured St Kilda a home Preliminary Final, in one of the best Finals wins this century by any team. It was Fisher's first Finals match with St Kilda, and it set a standard he met consistently throughout his career, but this was his final game for the year. In 2006, he played every match and had 421 disposals for the season. His 20-disposal-per game run-and-carry play from the half-back line in his 23 matches was critical to St Kilda's run to the finals, which resulted in an ultimately unfulfilling and underwhelming 6th-place finish. He was rewarded for his efforts with a podium third-placed finish in the St Kilda Best and Fairest

Trevor Barker Award The Trevor Barker Award is an Australian rules football award for the player voted the St Kilda Football Club best and fairest player during the home and away season in the Australian Football League by a voting panel. The St Kilda Best & Faire ...

. Injuries to other key defenders at the start of the 2007 season saw Fisher assume the role of full-back and key defender. He performed strongly against the power forwards of the competition before injuring his hamstring in Round 4. He returned in Round 7 and was able to resume his attacking position across half-back in the second half of the year. Fisher achieved his first 30-disposal game in 2007, having over 30 disposals 4 times during the season. His intercept marking in the back-line became a feature of his game, and he racked up 8 matches where he finished with more than 10 marks, with 186 for the year at just over 9 per game. He finished off the year strongly, and he was nominated in the backline in the squad of 40 players for the

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

Team. Fisher was ranked 8th in total marks, 17th in kicks per game, and 2nd in marks per game, in a season where St Kilda did not get to compete in the Finals. He was again a podium finisher in the Best and Fairest Trevor Barker Award, finishing second. Fisher signed a two-year contract extension in September 2007 until the end of 201

Best & Fairest, All-Australian

Fisher was required to play as a key-position backman after a season-ending injury to teammate Matt Maguire early in the 2008 season. He played in St Kilda's 2008 National Australia Band Cup winning team, the club's first pre-season cup win since 2004. Fisher had a strong season, averaging 22 disposals and 8 marks a game at the end of a regular season where St Kilda made a late charge to the finals, securing a top-4 qualification with a win in the final round. Fisher was included in the

team on the half-back flank, the first time he had been awarded that honour. Fisher also won the Saints' Trevor Barker Award for the 2008 season. He polled 680 votes to finish ahead of

Nick Riewoldt Nicholas Fredrick Riewoldt ( ; born 17 October 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was the first draft selection in the 2000 AFL draft. He was the ...

, who polled 643 votes. He marked the ball more than 10 times in 11 of his 25 matches, playing in all 3 of St Kilda's Finals matches for the season, where the Saints season ended in the Preliminary Final.

Consecutive grand finals

Fisher was again a consistent interceptor and prolific running presence in St Kilda's club all-time best home-and-away season of 2009, being pivotal in the Saints defence. Playing as a key back-man, regularly at centre half-back, he was used as a primary rebound player. He averaged 23 disposals and 8 marks per game for the season, playing in 21 of the 22 matches in the 2009 home-and-away rounds, in which St Kilda qualified in first position for the finals series, winning the 2009 Minor Premiership McClelland Trophy. Fisher was one of the dominant players of the 2009 Finals series, beginning the finals with a game high 42 disposals and 16 marks in the impressive 1st Qualifying Final win against Collingwood. He then played a crucial role in St Kilda's triumphant but unforgivably gruelling Preliminary Final win two weeks later. Fisher collected 30 disposals and kicked a pivotal set shot goal from outside 50 in the Saints' tough win over the Western Bulldogs, which was only assured beyond doubt with a late goal to Nick Riewoldt in the final minutes of the game. The win meant St Kilda got to play in its first Grand Final since the 1997 team. Fisher was targeted and closely checked in the 2009 Grand Final, finishing with 15 disposals and 12 "one-percenters". Fisher missed the first two rounds of

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, returning for a win that set the tone for the season against Collingwood in Round 3. He was taken from the ground on a stretcher, tested under concussion protocols, then returned to finish out a match that St Kilda won by 28 points. Despite the nasty head clash and time on the bench, he finished with 28 disposals and 10 marks. Fisher played in all of the remaining 20 regular season games in 2010 after Round 2. He was again a consistent standout during the finals series, averaging 24 disposals and 8 marks in St Kilda unbeaten Finals series run to the end of the

2010 AFL Grand Final The 2010 AFL Grand Final was a series of two Australian rules football matches between the Collingwood Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club. They are considered the 114th and 115th AFL Grand Final, grand finals of the Australian Football ...

. As of the end of the 2010 season, Fisher had played in Finals matches in five of the most recent six Finals series, with three of those seasons resulting in a preliminary final, while two were consecutive grand finals.

Second Best & Fairest award

In 2011, Fisher was a stabilising force in defence during a difficult start to the season for St Kilda. At the end of eight rounds, the Saints were listed as an underwhelming 15th on the AFL ladder. Fisher played all 23 matches for the season, consistently averaging 21 disposals and 6.5 marks a game. Fisher was a consistent running option for St Kilda during a season where the team re-built its season admirably, winning 8 of its last 10 home-and-away matches (11 of its last 15), to qualify for a home elimination final. Fisher's consistency, work ethic and stability in defence was rewarded with a second Trevor Barker Award.

2012–2016

Fisher's remaining seasons at St Kilda were adversely affected due to unavailability through injury. He played 61 matches in total in his last 5 seasons, his two most productive seasons being 15 matches in 2012 and 18 matches in 2015. At the conclusion of the 2016 season, Fisher announced his retirement from the St Kilda Football Club, having played 228 games for St Kilda, after being a mature-age recruit in his early 20s.

Personal life and criminal conviction

In May 2022, Fisher was charged with regularly trafficking large quantities of illicit drugs across state borders. After not appearing at the

Melbourne Magistrates' Court The Melbourne Magistrates' Court is the largest venue at which the Magistrates' Court of Victoria sits. It is a court in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that deals with, and dispenses of, a range of criminal and civil matters, including crimina ...

, he opted to stay in custody, with the matter adjourned until 10 August 2022.

, St Kilda's former captain, said that the AFL and its

players association The Players Association was a New York based studio group, put together by drummer/arranger Chris Hills and producer Danny Weiss in 1977 on Vanguard Records. Overview The Players Association recordings brought in leading jazz session musicians ...

needed to do more to help players when their playing careers ended. He also acknowledged that Fisher was "having some issues" in his playing days. According to sports journalist Mark Robinson, Fisher's plea for help came back in 2012 at a time when a source told

News Corp The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...

that the club "feared" the defender's lifestyle issues. Fisher's drug dependency continued to spiral, and he ended up getting entangled in an interstate trafficking scheme. In May 2024, Fisher was sentenced to five years' imprisonment after being convicted of

. He pled guilty to six drug offences, including trafficking a commercial quantity of

methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug use, recreational or Performance-enhancing substance, performance-enhancing drug and less commonly as a secon ...

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

, and 1,4-Butanediol, and three counts of drug possession.

Statistics

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2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

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2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

^# , , , 25 , , 21 , , 2 , , 0 , , 189 , , 103 , , 292 , , 91 , , 19 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 9.0 , , 4.9 , , 13.9 , , 4.3 , , 0.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 23 , , 2 , , 2 , , 310 , , 162 , , 472 , , 158 , , 30 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 13.5 , , 7.0 , , 20.5 , , 6.9 , , 1.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 20 , , 0 , , 2 , , 296 , , 110 , , 406 , , 186 , , 23 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 14.8 , , 5.5 , , 20.3 , , 9.3 , , 1.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2008^ , style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 25 , , 5 , , 2 , , 359 , , 217 , , 576 , , 228 , , 39 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 14.4 , , 8.7 , , 23.0 , , 9.1 , , 1.6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 24 , , 4 , , 2 , , 323 , , 228 , , 551 , , 184 , , 36 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 13.5 , , 9.5 , , 23.0 , , 7.7 , , 1.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 24 , , 5 , , 6 , , 305 , , 209 , , 514 , , 188 , , 43 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 12.7 , , 8.7 , , 21.4 , , 7.8 , , 1.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 23 , , 2 , , 4 , , 292 , , 194 , , 486 , , 153 , , 56 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 12.7 , , 8.4 , , 21.1 , , 6.7 , , 2.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 15 , , 1 , , 1 , , 178 , , 87 , , 265 , , 95 , , 28 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 11.9 , , 5.8 , , 17.7 , , 6.3 , , 1.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 9 , , 0 , , 0 , , 98 , , 63 , , 161 , , 56 , , 14 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.9 , , 7.0 , , 17.9 , , 6.2 , , 1.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 7 , , 1 , , 0 , , 84 , , 42 , , 126 , , 50 , , 19 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 12.0 , , 6.0 , , 18.0 , , 7.1 , , 2.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 18 , , 0 , , 0 , , 208 , , 102 , , 310 , , 120 , , 32 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 11.6 , , 5.7 , , 17.2 , , 6.7 , , 1.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 25 , , 12 , , 0 , , 2 , , 108 , , 63 , , 171 , , 64 , , 21 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 9.0 , , 5.3 , , 14.3 , , 5.3 , , 1.8 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 228 ! 22 ! 23 ! 2799 ! 1597 ! 4396 ! 1598 ! 366 ! 0.1 ! 0.1 ! 12.3 ! 7.0 ! 19.3 ! 7.0 ! 1.6 , - ! colspan=3, Finals ! 12 ! 3 ! 1 ! 209 ! 94 ! 303 ! 107 ! 23 ! 0.25 ! 0.1 ! 17.4 ! 7.8 ! 25.3 ! 8.9 ! 1.9

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Sam St Kilda Football Club players West Adelaide Football Club players All-Australians (AFL) Trevor Barker Award winners 1982 births Living people Australian rules footballers from South Australia Sandringham Football Club players Australia international rules football team players 21st-century Australian sportsmen