Tayte Pears (born 24 March 1990) 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 as a tall defender for the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

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 his youth, Pears played as a forward, before shifting to the backline at the age of 16, where he spent his entire AFL career.

AFL career

Pears was drafted by with pick 23 in the 2007 national draft and debuted in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. He played the role of a key position defender in his second season, taking on big dominant forwards such as Daniel Bradshaw,

Jarryd Roughead Jarryd Roughead (born 23 January 1987) is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He was formerly an assistant coach with the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the Hawthorn Football Club ...

and

Justin Koschitzke Justin Gregory Koschitzke (born 20 September 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League. He played 200 games and kicked 247 goals for the club between 2001 and 2013. ...

. After playing on

Brendan Fevola Brendan Fevola (born 20 January 1981) is a former professional Australian rules footballer and radio presenter. He played with the Carlton Football Club, Carlton and Brisbane Lions football clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). Fevol ...

in round 13, 2009, he was the round nominee for the Rising Star. Off-season surgery on a foot fracture that set back his return to senior football saw Pears’ bad run with injury continue in

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 ...

. He played his first game of the year against in round 13, but saw his season further stifled with injury after breaking his lower leg and then straining his hamstring in the elimination final. Injury continued to force him to sit on the sidelines in the years after, managing 23 games in the next four seasons. Then on 12 January 2016 Pears was named as one of 34 past and present Essendon players found guilty over their use of illegal supplements during the

2012 AFL season The 2012 AFL season was the 116th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured eighteen clubs, with addition of the newly established Greater ...

. As a result, Pears was suspended for two years, which, as a result of backdating, saw him suspended between January and November 2016, which meant he missed the entire

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th 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 eig ...

. He did not return to the AFL after his suspension, announcing his retirement from the league on 8 September 2016 to pursue a career in firefighting.

Statistics

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, , , , 16 , , 5 , , 2 , , 1 , , 25 , , 25 , , 50 , , 15 , , 9 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 5.0 , , 5.0 , , 10.0 , , 3.0 , , 1.8 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 16 , , 23 , , 1 , , 1 , , 156 , , 192 , , 348 , , 72 , , 47 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.8 , , 8.4 , , 15.1 , , 3.1 , , 2.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

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 ...

, , , , 16 , , 10 , , 0 , , 1 , , 91 , , 72 , , 163 , , 52 , , 29 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 9.1 , , 7.2 , , 16.3 , , 5.2 , , 2.9 , - ,

, , , , 16 , , 9 , , 0 , , 0 , , 54 , , 58 , , 112 , , 22 , , 24 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.0 , , 6.4 , , 12.4 , , 2.4 , , 2.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

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 ...

, , , , 16 , , 10 , , 0 , , 0 , , 53 , , 71 , , 124 , , 24 , , 27 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 5.3 , , 7.1 , , 12.4 , , 2.4 , , 2.7 , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 16 , , 11 , , 0 , , 0 , , 111 , , 83 , , 194 , , 65 , , 26 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.1 , , 7.6 , , 17.6 , , 5.9 , , 2.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

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 ...

, , , , 16 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ,

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 ...

, , , , 16 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 13 , , 19 , , 32 , , 9 , , 2 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.5 , , 9.5 , , 16.0 , , 4.5 , , 1.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ,

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 ...

, , , , 16 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 70 ! 3 ! 3 ! 503 ! 520 ! 1023 ! 259 ! 164 ! 0.0 ! 0.0 ! 7.2 ! 7.4 ! 14.6 ! 3.7 ! 2.3

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pears, Tayte Essendon Football Club players 1990 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia People from Manjimup, Western Australia Doping cases in Australian rules football Bendigo Football Club players 21st-century Australian sportsmen