Jarrad McVeigh
McVeigh with Sydney in 2009
Personal information
Full name Jarrad McVeigh
Date of birth (1985-04-07) 7 April 1985 (age 38)
Place of birth Central Coast (New South Wales)
Original team(s) NSW/ACT Rams (TAC Cup)
Pennant Hills Demons
Draft No. 5, 2002 national draft
Height 184 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 81 kg (179 lb)
Position(s) Defender / Midfielder
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2003–2019 Sydney 325 (201)
International team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
2010 Australia 2 (1)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2019.
2 State and international statistics correct as of 2010.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Jarrad McVeigh (born 7 April 1985) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is the younger brother of former Essendon midfielder Mark McVeigh. He was co-captain of the Sydney Swans alongside Adam Goodes in 2011 and 2012 and Kieren Jack from 2013 to 2016.

Early life

McVeigh was born and raised on the Central Coast in New South Wales. He played his junior football with Pennant Hills AFC and the NSW/ACT Rams. In 2001 he was the joint winner of the McLean Medal for best player at the National AFL Under 16 Championships. He performed well at the AFL Draft camp, recording the highest score in the beep test and the fastest three-kilometre run time.[1] He was recruited by the Sydney Swans with fifth selection in the 2002 AFL Draft.

AFL career

Sydney (2004–2019)

McVeigh made his AFL debut, wearing guernsey number 3, in the Swans' embarrassing loss to triple-defending premiers, the Brisbane Lions, at the Gabba in Round 1 of the 2004 season.

Earning the Swans Most Improved Award from the 2007 season, McVeigh established himself from a tagger to a goal-kicking midfielder. In round 18, 2008 against the Western Bulldogs, he kicked a career-high 6 goals.

At the end of the 2008 season, McVeigh won his first Bob Skilton Medal, as the Swans Best and Fairest, posting 578 votes, 10 points in front of runner-up Brett Kirk, polling the maximum 50 votes in the round-18 clash against the Western Bulldogs.[2] In 2009, McVeigh had a less successful year, missing some games due to a hamstring injury, and finishing sixth in the Best and Fairest award.[3]

In 2010, McVeigh finished fourth in the Bob Skilton Medal.[4] He was selected on the International Rules squad for the tour to Ireland in October.

In 2011, McVeigh was appointed co-captain of the Sydney Swans alongside Adam Goodes. The death of his newborn daughter, Luella, marred his season. In his absence, the Swans defeated eventual premiers Geelong at Skilled Stadium (the first time a visiting side had won at that location in four years) in round 23 and dedicated the win to the McVeigh family and Luella.[5] Despite such a tragedy, he managed to finish 10th in the 2011 Skilton Medal. In 2012, McVeigh captained the Sydney Swans to the 2012 premiership. His strong year was rewarded with a fifth-place finish in the 2012 Bob Skilton Medal.[citation needed] In 2015, McVeigh became only the seventh person to reach 250 games for the Swans in round 7.[6]

On 1 August 2019, McVeigh announced that he would retire at the conclusion of the 2019 AFL season.[7]

Personal life

McVeigh is married to Clementine McVeigh. On 25 July 2011 they had their first child, Luella, who died barely a month later following serious heart complications.[8][9]

In the first match since this tragedy, on 27 August 2011 the Swans caused one of the biggest upsets of the season knocking off Geelong on its home ground, where it had not lost in 1462 days. For Sydney, it was their first win at the venue for more than 12 years. Sydney and Geelong players wore black armbands in the match 'as a mark of respect for their absent co-captain Jarrad McVeigh and his wife Clementine'. The remarkable victory by the Swans was considered a tribute to McVeigh and his daughter.[10]

Essendon's Mark McVeigh, the older brother of Jarrad who had a baby daughter himself earlier in the year, paid tribute to Luella by 'blowing a kiss to the heavens' following his team's dramatic seven-point win over Port Adelaide in the same round. Essendon's players also wore black armbands in their match in respect to Mark's niece.[11]

It was confirmed in February 2012 that Jarrad and his wife Clementine were expecting another baby.[9] The McVeighs' second child Lolita-Luella McVeigh was born on 8 July 2012.[12] They had another daughter on 12 September 2017, Florence McVeigh.[13]

Statistics

[14]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
2004 Sydney 3 20 6 7 85 60 145 32 26 0.3 0.4 4.3 3.0 7.3 1.6 1.3
2005 Sydney 3 13 4 6 66 54 120 34 28 0.3 0.5 5.1 4.2 9.2 2.6 2.2
2006 Sydney 3 25 21 7 173 79 252 82 71 0.8 0.3 6.9 3.2 10.1 3.3 2.8
2007 Sydney 3 23 11 15 212 106 318 105 52 0.5 0.7 9.2 4.6 13.8 4.6 2.3
2008 Sydney 3 24 32 14 251 216 467 114 75 1.3 0.6 10.5 9.0 19.5 4.8 3.1
2009 Sydney 3 18 14 10 189 190 379 69 56 0.8 0.6 10.5 10.6 21.1 3.8 3.1
2010 Sydney 3 24 16 11 277 240 517 91 85 0.7 0.5 11.5 10.0 21.5 3.8 3.5
2011 Sydney 3 22 19 11 297 173 470 81 97 0.9 0.5 13.5 7.9 21.4 3.7 4.4
2012 Sydney 3 25 18 13 352 264 616 108 80 0.7 0.5 14.1 10.6 24.6 4.3 3.2
2013 Sydney 3 25 16 7 404 284 688 102 88 0.6 0.3 16.2 11.4 27.5 4.1 3.5
2014 Sydney 3 25 15 9 327 255 582 105 110 0.6 0.4 13.1 10.2 23.3 4.2 4.4
2015 Sydney 3 22 12 5 290 243 533 121 99 0.5 0.2 13.2 11.0 24.2 5.5 4.5
2016 Sydney 3 21 8 6 249 178 427 70 78 0.4 0.3 11.9 8.5 20.3 3.3 3.7
2017 Sydney 3 13 7 6 147 94 241 64 29 0.5 0.5 11.3 7.2 18.5 4.9 2.2
2018 Sydney 3 19 1 0 235 166 401 92 42 0.1 0.0 12.4 8.7 21.1 4.8 2.2
2019 Sydney 3 6 1 0 57 51 108 24 7 0.2 0.0 9.5 8.5 18.0 4.0 1.2
Career 325 201 127 3611 2653 6264 1294 1023 0.6 0.4 11.1 8.2 19.3 4.0 3.1

References

  1. ^ Halloran, Jessica (23 November 2002). "A young hopeful plays football's waiting game".
  2. ^ Morrissey, Tim (4 October 2008). "Jarrad McVeigh takes best and fairest". The Daily Telegraph.
  3. ^ "O'Keefe voted Swans' best". 12 September 2009.
  4. ^ Johnson, Paul (1 October 2010). "Jack caps breakout year with Skilton Medal".
  5. ^ Balym, Todd (29 August 2011). "Jarrad McVeigh under no pressure to return". The Daily Telegraph.
  6. ^ Curley, Adam (16 May 2015). "Jarrad McVeigh's premiership cup runneth over". BigPond.
  7. ^ "McVeigh calls time". Sydney Swans. 1 August 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  8. ^ Cowley, Michael (5 February 2012). "I'm proud of her: dad's tribute to baby Luella". The Age. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  9. ^ a b Halloran, Jessica (5 February 2012). "Jarrad McVeigh talks to Jessica Halloran about baby Luella and a very special gift". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  10. ^ -McNicol, Adam (27 August 2011). "Swans end Cats' reign". Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  11. ^ One from the heart – AFL.com.au Archived 10 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Cordy, Neil (9 July 2012). "Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh and wide Clementine's heartbreak soothed with new baby girl Lolita". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  13. ^ Curley, Adam (13 September 2017). "Veteran Swan's early milestone present". AFL.com.au. Australian Football League. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Jarrad McVeigh stats". AFL Tables. Retrieved 1 November 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jarrad McVeigh.
Sydney Swans 2012 AFL Premiers
Captains of the South Melbourne Football Club/Sydney Swans
Bob Skilton Medal · Sydney Swans best and fairest winners
2013 All-Australian team
Australian squad – 2010 International Rules Series
Australian squad – 2014 International Rules Series
2002 AFL national draft
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