Brendan Fevola

Fevola at Carlton training, November 2007.

Fevola was recruited to Carlton Football Club with selection No. 38 overall in the 1998 AFL Draft.[3] Early in his career he showed signs of being a brilliant kick of the ball and a prospective key position player at full forward. During a pre-season game on 31 December 1999 against Collingwood (promoted as the "Millennium Match"), he kicked 12 goals.[4]

The promising talent was given the No. 25 guernsey made famous by Carlton legend Alex Jesaulenko.

However Fevola struggled to maintain form over the next few years, playing in 39 games and kicking 66 goals between 2000 and 2002, with noticeably poor body language on-field as well as causing bad publicity through incidents off-field.[4] Carlton coach Wayne Brittain had intended to trade or delist Fevola at the end of the 2002 season; however, after Carlton's poor season (in which it won the wooden spoon) Brittain was himself sacked, and incoming coach Denis Pagan reversed Brittain's decision.[5]

Pagan's arrival had an immediate impact on Fevola's discipline and form. In Round 5, 2003, Fevola kicked 8 goals against the Kangaroos, helping win the game for Carlton and launching himself into the eyes of AFL viewers. Fevola's unkempt dreadlocks and extroverted personality in the media earned him the nickname "The Shag" by fans.

Fevola's early goalkicking inconsistency saw him experiment with unorthodox styles of handling the ball in approach to taking set shots. In 2004, Fevola developed a ritualistic set-shot routine of taking three quick steps to shoot on goal, and this resulted in a significant increase in goalkicking accuracy, particularly from long distance. The duration of his ritual, at times taking longer than a minute, became a point of contention, and was partially responsible for the introduction of a new rule in 2006 (commonly referred to as "the Lloyd Rule" after Essendon's Matthew Lloyd, who had a similarly lengthy set shot ritual), limiting the duration permitted to take a set shot to 30 seconds, before play-on would be called.[6] Fevola's ritual was duly shortened to accommodate the new rule.

In 2006, Fevola capped off a stunning year and his best to that point by kicking 84 goals and winning the Coleman Medal and All-Australian selection. He scored 59 goals in 2007, then followed this up in 2008 with his career best of 99 goals for the season, seeing him finish second behind Lance Franklin in the race for the Coleman Medal.[4] He was selected for Victoria in the once-off AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match in 2008, kicking six goals and winning the Allen Aylett Medal as best on ground.

In 2009, Fevola won his second Coleman Medal, kicking 86 goals for the season, eight goals clear of the runner up Jonathan Brown.[4] He is the only Carlton player ever to win the League goal-kicking twice, and it was his seventh consecutive season as the club's leading goalkicker; only Stephen Kernahan (11) had won the award more times consecutively.[7]

Carlton announced on 30 September 2009 that it would seek a trade for Fevola during the 2009 trade week due to his off-field behaviour, most specifically due to antics at the 2009 Brownlow Medal Count. On 9 October, he was officially traded to the Brisbane Lions, along with a second round draft pick (#27 overall) in exchange for Brisbane's Lachlan Henderson and a first round draft pick (#12 overall).[8] Additionally, Carlton agreed to pay $100,000 of Fevola's salary for each of the two years remaining on his existing contract.[9] Fevola left Carlton as a life member of the club, after playing 187 senior games for 575 goals – the third most goals by any player in Carlton Football Club history. Despite the circumstances of his departure, Carlton has stated that Fevola's life membership was not affected, and that he remained welcome at the club.[10]

At Brisbane, Fevola was given the Number 5 guernsey.[11] He made his debut for the Lions in the first round of the 2010 season at the Gabba against the West Coast Eagles. He finished the 2010 season with 48 goals in 17 games.

After further off-field controversy over the 2010/11 offseason, Fevola was sacked by the Lions on 20 February 2011.[12]

In 2001, he was involved in an attempted theft of jackets from a drycleaners in North Melbourne; he was fined $8000 by Carlton for the incident.[4] On 8 March 2004, he was involved in an incident at Crown Casino; no charges were laid, but he was suspended by Carlton for a week.[43] In 2006 Fevola assaulted a barman during a tour of Ireland in 2006 with the Australian International Rules team, and was sent back to Australia.[44] In March 2008, Fevola was fined $10,000 by the club and stood down from the leadership group after urinating on a window outside a Melbourne nightclub. After this incident, Carlton did not suspend or delist Fevola, saying that taking such action would not assist Fevola in addressing his problems, but he was put on his final warning.[45]

In September 2009, Fevola was fined $10,000 and banned from appearing on the Grand Final Footy Show after behaving inappropriately at the 2009 Brownlow Medal count. Fevola withdrew from the traditional lap of honour by the Coleman Medallist at the 2009 AFL Grand Final and did not attend Carlton's award night.[46] As a result of the incident, he was traded to the Brisbane Lions, and did not return as a panellist on The Footy Show in 2010.

On 2 March 2010, Lara Bingle started proceedings to sue Fevola for breach of privacy, defamation and misuse of her image for the release of a nude photo in Woman's Day released on 1 March 2010;[47] but on 9 April, Fevola was cleared of the charges against him. In September 2010 it was announced that Queensland police had launched a formal investigation into claims that Fevola had flashed a woman at a Brisbane park during a football clinic, but again there were no charges laid;[48] the Brisbane Lions also suspended him independently while it conducted its own investigation into the event.[49]

Early on 1 January 2011, New Year's Day, Fevola was arrested in Brisbane on charges of public nuisance and obstructing police. He was released on bail and is scheduled to appear in court on 18 January. The Brisbane Lions granted him indefinite leave,[50] before terminating his contract after receiving medical advice.[51]

In 2010, it became public that Fevola was addicted to gambling, mostly playing poker and punting on horses. He accumulated significant debts from gambling.[52] In a paid interview with the Footy Show in early 2011, Fevola further discussed his addiction, revealing that he spent 65 days in rehabilitation, had lost almost a million dollars gambling, including $365,000 in one day of horse punting, and that his addiction almost drove him to suicide during Christmas 2010.[53]

Fevola was a regular panellist on The Footy Show on the Nine Network, and was noted for his larrikin persona. His tenure as a panellist ended after his behaviour at the 2009 Brownlow Medal Count, the same event which led to the end of his time at Carlton.[54]

Fevola starred in the second season of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, which he won and was crowned King of the Jungle. The prize for taking out the title was $100,000 to be donated to his chosen charity. Felova decided to split the winnings evenly between his chosen charity, Shane Warne Foundation, and series runner-up Paul Harragon's chosen charity, Mark Hughes Foundation.