Simon Feast (born 1 December 1974) 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

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

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 for much longer with Sturt 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).

Early life

Born in

Port MacDonnell, South Australia Port MacDonnell, originally known as ''Ngaranga'', is the southernmost town in South Australia. The small port is located in the Limestone Coast region, about south-east of Adelaide and south of Mount Gambier, in the District Council of Grant ...

, where his father was a fisherman, Feast moved to nearby

Mount Gambier, South Australia Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with a population of 25,591 as of the 2021 census. The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier (volcano), Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about ...

as an 8-year-old. Despite not coming from a sporting family, at 13 Feast started playing football for

East Gambier Football Club The East Gambier Football & Netball Club is an Australian rules football and netball formed in 1938 that currently competes in the Limestone Coast Football League. History The East Gambier Football Club first formally formed in 1938 (though the ...

in the

Western Border Football League The Limestone Coast Football Netball League is an Australian rules football competition based in the Limestone Coast, Lower South East region of South Australia, and south-western border region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It is an affili ...

. As a latecomer to junior football Feast wasn't the most gifted junior but developed into a promising ruckman. He had a trial at

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 ...

but returned home shortly after. Feast went to play football in Darwin in the 1994 off season as a 19-year-old and when he returned home Feast had an offer from Sturt's general manager Ross Tuohy, which he gladly accepted as an opportunity to leave his job at a timber mill.

Football career

Feast began when the Double Blues were at a low ebb – they had suffered six consecutive wooden spoons, and his debut season of 1995 was an unprecedented horror with Sturt losing all 22 games by no fewer than 24 points. Feast, however, won Sturt’s

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award as a rookie, and continued this form as the Double Blues made a remarkable revival over the following three seasons to win sixteen matches in 1998, winning another best and fairest in 1998. Sydney drafted Feast, a ruckman, from the Double Blues with pick 71 in the National Draft. He made his league debut in round five of the

1999 AFL season The 1999 AFL season was the 103rd 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 ...

, coming into the side for

Greg Stafford Greg Stafford may refer to: * Greg Stafford (game designer) (1948–2018), American game designer * Greg Stafford (footballer) (born 1974), Australian rules football player * Greg Stafford (politician) Gregory James Stafford is a British Conser ...

. In his time at Sydney Feast was never a regular fixture in the team, playing five games in 1999, four in

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 five in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. Feast played VFL football for

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, Port Phillip Local government ...

as they were the Swans' reserves side and received the second most votes in the 2001

J. J. Liston Trophy The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (VFL), which was formerly known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA). It is named after J. J. Liston, J.J. Liston, a busine ...

. After being delisted by Sydney after the 2001 season, Feast returned to Sturt and played in the Double Blues’ first premiership since 1976. He continued to play for Sturt until his retirement in 2008, after 205 games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feast, Simon 1974 births Living people Australian rules footballers from South Australia Sydney Swans players Sturt Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club players