Andrew McLeod

Andrew Luke McLeod (born 4 August 1976) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

He is the games record holder for Adelaide, having played 340 games.

McLeod is considered by many as the greatest player to have played for the Adelaide Football Club.

When McLeod was young, his family moved to Katherine, near Wardaman country, before returning to Darwin in early 1985.

He was educated at St John’s College Darwin.

As a child, McLeod supported the Essendon Football Club, and he also had experiences with AFL player and Darwin local Michael McLean.

"My idol was Michael McLean, number 51. I loved watching him play. He always gave me time when he came home. Seeing him on TV on the Winners and then when he came home you got to sit down with him and have a chat. He'd talk about what training you needed to do and the big league. I still keep in touch with him."

McLeod played a variety of sports as a junior, including athletics, soccer, rugby union, rugby league and Australian rules football.

His family had a long history of playing for the Darwin Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League, starting with his great-grandfather Put, down to his father, who had played over 200 games, so McLeod also began playing for their senior team in 1993.

As a gifted player, he was selected to represent the Northern Territory in the Teal Cup, where he was voted best-on-ground in the team's win against Victoria.

Port Adelaide Football Club chief executive officer Brian Cunningham called McLeod's father Jock to offer McLeod a contract to play for Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League for $250 per game.

Jock knew that moving to Adelaide to play football would be daunting for McLeod, so he secretly negotiated with Port Adelaide to drop his son off at in Adelaide then leave.

The pair drove to Adelaide and stayed in the home of the Duffield family, who were Port Adelaide supporters.

McLeod wasn't told that he'd be staying behind until the morning that his father left him there.

Despite the rough start, McLeod very quickly rose through the ranks of the Port Adelaide team.

He started by playing one game in the Under-17s side, followed by one game in the Under-19s side and four games in the reserves side, then finishing the season with 14 consecutive games in the senior team, including becoming a premiership player by winning the 1994 SANFL Grand Final.

The Fremantle Football Club was entering the Australian Football League in the 1995 season, and as part of the recruitment concessions they have been given, they sought to recruit McLeod.

When McLeod met with Fremantle, coach Gerard Neesham had not actually seen him play before and asked McLeod to stand up to show how tall he was.

McLeod felt insulted and belittled and refused to play for Fremantle.

Adelaide's recruiter Tim Johnson heard that the negotiations weren't going well, so Adelaide Football Club general manager Bill Sanders contacted McLeod's father to let him know the club was interested in recruiting him.

Adelaide and Fremantle negotiated a trade the day before the trading deadline, with Fremantle receiving forward Chris Groom in return.

The Crows had to compete for McLeod with Collingwood, who had offered an inducement to McLeod's father if he was able to convince McLeod to sign with them.

Adelaide players initially gave McLeod nickname "Hamburger" because he was seen as chubby, but soon adopted the nickname "Bunji" (which means "Brother") that he had been given while playing in Darwin.

He made his AFL debut for the Crows in their Round 6 match against Melbourne, which the Crows won but 8 points, but McLeod spent most of the game on the interchange bench and only touched the ball four times through the game.

McLeod was dropped after this game, then played his second game in Round 9 against Hawthorn.

Adelaide trailed Hawthorn by 34 points at half time, but launched a comeback in the second half.

They were still down by 4 points in the dying seconds of the game.

The ball was kicked inside Adelaide's forward 50, and McLeod raced at the ball, competing with Hawk defender Ray Jencke.

He was able to recover the ball, evade Jenke's attempts to tackle him, and kick a dribbling goal from a tight angle to win the game for Adelaide.

"McLeod, somehow, miraculously gathers possession of this wet and slippery ball, arches his back, goes one way and then the other and leaves Jenke slipping and sliding in his wake. Then, against the pressure of time and finding himself in a position to somehow conceive a way to win, he calmly caresses the greasy ball onto and across his boot and dribbles it through the goals in an arc from the boundary."

Later in the year, McLeod was nominated for the Norwich Rising Star award, but he discovered towards the end of the 1995 season that he had broken several bones in his feet, and he had to have injections in his feet to play the last seven rounds without pain.

The injuries came as a result of McLeod being forced to wear boots made by Adidas, who were a Crows sponsor at the time.

Adidas boots didn't fit McLeod's foot shape, so once it became apparent that the shoes were causing his injuries, McLeod started wearing Puma boots with Adidas stripes painted on them.

McLeod won two premierships for the Adelaide Football Club in 1997 and 1998.

He was also awarded the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground in the 1997 and 1998 AFL Grand Finals.

McLeod was born in Darwin, Northern Territory.

He is Indigenous with Wardaman and Warrgamay descent through his mother, while his father Jock McLeod is of Scottish descent.

McLeod had an older sister and older brother and was the family's youngest child.

McLeod's breakout year came in 1997 under Adelaide's new coach, Malcolm Blight.

This lasted until he signed an exclusive agreement with Adidas to have them custom-make shoes that would fit his feet from 1998 on.