| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth | June 24 1953 , |
| Recruited from | |
| Playing career¹ | |
| Debut | 1972, vs. , at |
| Team(s) | Hawthorn Football Club(1972-1991)
426 games, 320 goals |
| ¹ Statistics to end of 1991 season | |
| Career highlights | |
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Michael Tuck (born June 24, 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer in the VFL/AFL with the Hawthorn Football Club. Raised in Berwick, in Melbourne's outer south-eastern suburbs, Tuck made his debut for Hawthorn in 1972, and remained at the club for his entire career. He was the natural successor to the Hawthorn captaincy in 1986 after Leigh Matthews' retirement. He captained them from that year until his retirement in 1991 at the age of 38. He played in a total of seven VFL/AFL premierships with Hawthorn, captaining the club in four of them. Fittingly, his last game was in Hawthorn's premiership win in the Grand Final over West Coast. Tuck was a skinny ruck-rover with great stamina as evidenced by the length of his career. As of 2007, Tuck is the VFL/AFL games record holder, with 426 games. However, Michael's durability is not only reflected in the number of senior games he played. Before becoming a regular in the powerful Hawthorn team of the mid 1970's, Tuck played 50 games in the reserves before establishing himself as a regular senior team member. He has a son, Shane Tuck, who plays in the AFL for Richmond. Another son, Travis Tuck, was recently drafted under the father/son rule to play for Hawthorn, although he is yet to make his debut.
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Honours
The Michael Tuck Medal was named after the former champion, as was a grandstand at Glenferrie Oval. He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
Records
Michael Tuck holds a number of VFL/AFL games records which may possibly never be beaten. These are:
- Most senior games: 426 for Hawthorn
- Most finals games: 39
- Most grand finals played in: 11
- Most premiership wins: 7
He retired as the tenth oldest player ever; he was 38 years and 95 days old when he retired.[1]
Trivia
Whilst announcing the winner of the medal named after himself (the Michael Tuck Medal) he announced it wrong. He announced "The winner of the Norm Smith Medal." He is the brother-in-law of Geelong great Gary Ablett snr.
References
- Ross, John (1999). The Australian Football Hall of Fame. Australia: HarperCollinsPublishers, p. 130. ISBN 0-7322-6426-X.
- AFL: Hall of Fame
| 1991 Hawthorn Hawks Premiership Squad |
|---|
| Captain: Tuck | Allan | Anderson | Ayres | Brereton | Collins | Condon | Dear | Dunstall | Gowers | Hall | Hudson | Jarman | Jencke | Lawrence | Langford | Mew | Morrissey | Platten | Pritchard | Coach: Joyce |
