Gavin Wanganeen

Gavin Wanganeen
Gavin Wanganeen
Personal information
Full name	Gavin Adrian Wanganeen
Nickname(s)	Wanga
Date of birth	18 June 1973
Place of birth	Mount Gambier, South Australia
Original team(s)	Salisbury North
Draft	No. 12, 1989 National Draft, Essendon
Height	181 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	83 kg (183 lb)
Position(s)	Utility
Playing career1
Representative team honours
	1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2005.
Career highlights
	Club 2x AFL premiership player (1993, 2004); John Cahill Medal (2003); Port Adelaide captain (1997–2000); Representative 5× All-Australian team (1992, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2003); National Football Carnival championship (1993); Honours Brownlow Medal (1993); Michael Tuck Medal (1993); Essendon Team of the Century (back pocket); Champions of Essendon (number 19); Australian Football Hall of Fame;
	Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Gavin Adrian Wanganeen (born 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer.

He played for Essendon in the Australian Football League (AFL) and Port Adelaide in both the AFL and the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), winning the 1993 Brownlow Medal.

Since retirement, Wanganeen has taken up painting. He is a descendant of the Kokatha people, a Western Desert people of South Australia, an inheritance he has explored in his art work since retirement. He has had two solo exhibitions and was an ambassador for the Adelaide Fringe in 2019.

Early life

Wanganeen was born in Mount Gambier to a footballing family: his great-grandfather had played for the local team, Koonibba Football Club, at the Koonibba mission near Ceduna.[1] He is an Aboriginal Australian of Kokata descent.[2]

His family moved from Mount Gambier to Port Lincoln for a few years. By the time Wanganeen was 5 they moved again to Salisbury, a northern suburb in Adelaide.[3]

Wanganeen played junior football for Adelaide based South Australian Amateur Football League club Salisbury North and attended Salisbury East High School.[3]

At the age of 14, Wanganeen joined the Port Adelaide Under 17s side in the SANFL.[3]

Football career

Port Adelaide: 1990

Wanganeen made his senior SANFL debut with Port Adelaide in 1990 at only 16 years of age. The 1990 SANFL season was the last year that the competition was the highest level of football in South Australia. He played 24 matches and kicked 46 goals, winning the SANFL Rookie of the Year award, starring in Port Adelaide's 1990 SANFL Grand Final win kicking two goals.[4]

Essendon: 1991–1996

Drafted to Essendon, Wanganeen debuted for the club in 1991, Round 2 in a win against Richmond. He immediately finding a niche as an attacking defender. His quality was recognised in 1993 when he won the Brownlow Medal for the best and fairest player in the league, the first Aboriginal Australian to do so, as well as being a key player in South Australia's State of Origin Carnival Championship, and Essendon's Premiership win that year. In 2002, Wanganeen was voted the 19th best Essendon player of all time in the "Champions of Essendon" list.

Port Adelaide return: 1997–2006

Wanganeen returned to Port Adelaide in 1997 as the club's 59th captain and its inaugural captain in the AFL. He received 11 Brownlow votes for the year, but after his first season injuries conspired to minimise his impact. He relinquished the Port Adelaide captaincy at the end of the 2000 AFL season which saw a return to his best form. In 2003 Wanganeen was favourite to once again win the Brownlow (he finished equal second). In 2004 Wanganeen won his second premiership medal in Port's first AFL premiership side. Wanganeen played his 300th AFL game in the 2006 season, but then injured his right knee in a SANFL game for the Port Adelaide Magpies, which led him to retire from football.[5] Wanganeen was the first Aboriginal player to play 300 AFL games. He was honoured by the Power by the naming of the best under 21 medal after him, the Gavin Wanganeen Medal.

After football

In 2013, Wanganeen was focused on business interests involving ownership of three Anytime Fitness centres at Modbury, Port Adelaide and Essendon.[6]

He served as a voluntary ambassador for the Australian branch of the White Ribbon Campaign, a men's campaign that tackles violence against women, and participated in the 2013 "Cycling for Culture" event to draw attention to the importance of language and culture to Aboriginal well-being, specifically to attract funds to contributing to the further development of the Kaurna language.[6]

In 2013, Wanganeen was appointed senior coach of Pulteney Grammar School's football team.[7]

Art

Wanganeen found a new passion after retirement and has become an accomplished visual artist, with two solo exhibitions by 2019[8] and much of his artwork decorating his home in suburban Adelaide.[9]

In February 2019, Wanganeen was appointed one of three Fringe Ambassadors for the Adelaide Fringe, where he appeared in conversation with Holly Ransom for the Fringe Talk Show.[10][11]

His second exhibition, Through the Stars,[8] was part of the South Australian Living Artists Festival in Adelaide.[12]

Other

The Gavin Wanganeen Indigenous Scholarship (GWIS) was established at the University of South Australia in 2005 to support disadvantaged Indigenous students to complete a university degree.[6]

The Gavin Wanganeen Medal, for the Best player under 21, was instituted at PAFC in 2006.

Personal life

Wanganeen has two children, a daughter and a son[13] with his first wife, Stephanie.[14]

In July 2012, Wanganeen married Pippa Hanson.[13] Together the couple have four daughters.[9]

He is the first cousin of AFL players and brothers Aaron and Alwyn Davey,[15] and a third cousin of Rabbit Proof Fence actress Natasha Wanganeen.

Football statistics

[16]

**Legend**
G	Goals	B	Behinds	K	Kicks	H	Handballs	D	Disposals	M	Marks	T	Tackles


Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
Season	Team	No.	Games	G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
1991	Essendon	4	18	12	13	155	89	244	39	38	0.7	0.7	8.6	4.9	13.6	2.2	2.1
1992	Essendon	4	21	11	17	238	121	359	55	73	0.5	0.8	11.3	5.8	17.1	2.6	3.5
1993†	Essendon	4	22	5	3	267	146	413	69	30	0.2	0.1	12.1	6.6	18.8	3.1	1.4
1994	Essendon	4	22	12	9	286	101	387	82	42	0.5	0.4	13.0	4.6	17.6	3.7	1.9
1995	Essendon	4	23	10	10	267	124	391	60	27	0.4	0.4	11.6	5.4	17.0	2.6	1.2
1996	Essendon	4	21	14	8	242	111	353	64	43	0.7	0.4	11.5	5.3	16.8	3.0	2.0
1997	Port Adelaide	1	20	14	6	219	129	348	49	28	0.7	0.3	11.0	6.5	17.4	2.5	1.4
1998	Port Adelaide	1	15	8	9	176	60	236	52	28	0.5	0.6	11.7	4.0	15.7	3.5	1.9
1999	Port Adelaide	1	16	5	4	193	92	285	59	15	0.3	0.3	12.1	5.8	17.8	3.7	0.9
2000	Port Adelaide	1	10	6	5	120	55	175	36	9	0.6	0.5	12.0	5.5	17.5	3.6	0.9
2001	Port Adelaide	4	24	41	22	256	109	365	75	26	1.7	0.9	10.7	4.5	15.2	3.1	1.1
2002	Port Adelaide	4	20	12	7	201	83	284	64	21	0.6	0.4	10.1	4.2	14.2	3.2	1.1
2003	Port Adelaide	4	25	15	18	433	91	524	161	33	0.6	0.7	17.3	3.6	21.0	6.4	1.3
2004†	Port Adelaide	4	19	24	10	193	103	296	86	17	1.3	0.5	10.2	5.4	15.6	4.5	0.9
2005	Port Adelaide	4	23	13	8	227	135	362	75	29	0.6	0.3	9.9	5.9	15.7	3.3	1.3
2006	Port Adelaide	4	1	0	0	0	9	9	1	1	0.0	0.0	0.0	9.0	9.0	1.0	1.0
Career			300	202	149	3473	1558	5031	1027	460	0.7	0.5	11.6	5.2	16.8	3.4	1.5

Football honours and achievements

Season	Votes
Brownlow Medal votes
1991	7
1992	11
1993	18
1994	6
1995	7
1996	4
1997	11
1998	3
1999	11
2000	—
2001	4
2002	2
2003	21
2004	2
2005	2
2006	—
Total	109
Key:
Green / Bold = Won

Essendon

Team

AFL Premiership (Essendon): 1993
McClelland Trophy (Essendon): 1993
Pre-Season Cup (Essendon): 1993, 1994

Individual

Port Adelaide