| Ken Hall |
| Personal information |
| Full name | Ken Hall |
| Date of birth | 13 November 1980 (age 30) |
| Recruited from | Tassie Mariners / Hobart |
| Draft | 46 overall, 2002 Rookie Draft
(Essendon) |
| Height/Weight | 178 cm / 83 kg |
| Position(s) | Defender / Midfielder |
| Playing career |
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) |
| 2002–2003 | Essendon | 1 (0) |
| Playing statistics to end of 2003 season .
|
Ken Hall (born 13 November 1980) is an Australian rules football player from Tasmania. After playing his junior football in his home state, Hall moved to Victoria in 2001 to play for Essendon Football Club's reserves side in the Victorian Football League (VFL), rather than play with the Tasmanian Devils, a VFL team from his home state. After a year in the VFL, Hall was drafted onto Essendon's rookie list for the 2002 season. He was promoted to the senior list in 2002 and made his Australian Football League (AFL) debut, although he did not record a statistic in his only match. Hall was retained on the rookie lis for 2003 and was again elevated to the senior list midway through the season. Although he was often named as an emergency after his elevation, Hall was unable to break into the senior team and the Bombers delisted him at the end of the season, thereby ending his AFL career. After being delisted Hall played with the Tasmanian Devils in the VFL for four seasons, before joining Tasmanian Football League (TFL) team North Hobart in 2008, with whom he has won two best and fairest awards and currently plays for.
Early career
A Tasmanian native, Hall played his junior football for Hobart Football Club's under-18 side in the Southern Football League, as well as representing his under-18 state side, the Tassie Mariners, in the TAC Cup. When his junior football career was completed, Hall had an opportunity to play for Tasmania's team in the Victorian Football League (VFL), the Tasmanian Devils. Instead, Hall sought an opportunity with Essendon, an Australian Football League (AFL) club, and after doing a pre-season with the senior team, was placed on the Bombers' supplementary list for 2001, playing with Essendon's reserves in the VFL.
AFL career
After impressing with the reserves in 2001, Hall was drafted by Essendon with the 46th selection in the 2002 AFL Rookie Draft, thereby placing him on the Bombers' rookie list. In the lead-up to the 2002 season Hall played in all three of Essendon's pre-season matches, of which the Bombers lost every game. As rookie listed players must be promoted to the senior list before they play a senior AFL match, Hall began the 2002 season playing in the VFL for Essendon's reserves team. When Dean Solomon suffered a season-ending knee injury in late March, Hall was one of three players in contention to be promoted to the senior list in place of Solomon. After approximately one month of assessment Hall was deemed the most impressive of Essendon's three rookies and was elevated to the senior list. In early June, Hall played particularly well in defence for the reserves against the Murray Kangaroos, and was subsequently in consideration to play for Essendon's senior team. The Essendon team had been plagued by injury throughout 2002 and this, coupled with Hall's good form in the VFL, resulted in him making his AFL debut in round 12 against Hawthorn. After a particularly poor performance in his debut match, in which he did record a statistic, Hall was dropped backed to the VFL side the following round. Despite showing form in the VFL for the remainder of 2002, Hall was unable to break back into the senior Bombers line-up. Although a poor season for Hall in terms of AFL appearances, he played well at VFL level and was third in the reserves' best and fairest award.
Hall was retained on the Bombers' rookie list for 2003. Although Essendon had another poor pre-season, losing four of the five matches they played, Hall did played in all of the five matches. He was described as "perform[ing] well" in The Age newspaper, and even kicked a goal in the first of the matches. After spending the majority of his career prior to 2003 as a defender, Hall was trialled as a midfielder for the 2003 season, a move which reaped immediate results as he became a "goalscoring weapon" for the Bendigo Bombers (Essendon's new VFL-affiliate side), as well as becoming well known for his penetrating kicking ability. In early August, Hall kicked four goals in a tight win against the Northern Bullants in the VFL, and only three days later, Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy declared that Hall and two others were in contention to be promoted to the senior list, even though he had missed out on being elevated only two weeks prior. Sheedy then proceeded to promote Hall, in place of the injured Joel Reynolds, only a day later, on 8 August to "see if [Hall] will be a viable option come finals time". He was immediately named in Essendon's 25-man squad to play against the Western Bulldogs, but failed to make the starting 22. Despite not playing a senior match for the the entirety of the regular season, there was media speculation that Hall may be selected for Essendon's elimination final against Fremantle, due to Sheedy stating that he had "little chioce" but to select a youthful team for the match and that "it wouldn't worry [him]" to select an inexperienced player. Despite these comments, Sheedy elected not to play Hall in the match, instead selecting him as an emergency. Essendon won the match and moved on to the semi final, where Hall was again an emergency. Essendon lost the semi final and was eliminated from the finals series, thereby ending the Bombers' season. Although regularly pushing for selection in 2003 and finishing equal second in Bendigo's best and fairest count, Hall was delisted at season's end.
Post-AFL career
After being delisted by the Bombers, Hall began playing with the Tasmanian Devils in the VFL for the 2004 season, immediately becoming one of the club's "better players". In 2005 Hall was among the best on the ground in an interstate match between the VFL and the South Australian National Football League, and also finished in third in the Devils' best and fairest count. The 2006 season saw Hall named best on ground in his 100th VFL match, a 24-point win over Frankston. In 2007 journalist Matt Burgan named Hall in the best 22 players currently from Tasmania, with Hall and Cameron Thurley the only two players who were not listed with an AFL club at the time of selection. After playing 134 VFL matches, Hall left the Devils at the end of the 2007 season. He then proceeded to join North Hobart Football Club in the Tasmanian Football League (TFL) for 2008. In his first year with the club Hall won the George Miller Medal, awarded to North Hobart's best and fairest player for the season. He also played for the TFL against the Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL) and was best on ground for the Tasmanians, winning the Lefroy Medal. Although Hall did not win back-to-back best and fairests in 2009, he was described as North Hobart's "star player", again represented the TFL in a match against the QAFL and was his team's only representative in the top 10 of Tassie Medal, awarded to the league's best and fairest player. By 2010, Hall was still playing with North Hobart and was one of only four players in the TFL to have senior AFL experience. The 2010 season was another impressive one for Hall as he won his second George Miller Medal and was described by his coach as being the "best tackler in the competition" and in the league's five best players.
References
External links
Retrieved from :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hall_(footballer)
