David Rodan
Encyclopedia
David Rodan is a professional Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

er currently playing for the Port Adelaide Football Club
Port Adelaide Football Club
The Port Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, which plays in the Australian Football League and the South Australian National Football League...

.

Rodan is the first Fijian
Fijian people
Fijian people are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. The Fijian people are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, though the exact origins of the Fijian people are unknown...

-born player to reach 100 AFL games.

Early life

David Rodan was born in Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 and grew up in the town of Lami near Suva
Suva
Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...

 and is also of Tongan heritage. At three years old he moved to Australia with his parents. His father wanted him to play rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

, but there were no rugby clubs for juniors in his area. Instead, he tried Aussie Rules, beginning junior football with Oak Park and the Holy Child Football Club in Broadmeadows
Broadmeadows, Victoria
Broadmeadows is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hume...

, and he developed a passion for the sport.

Rodan rose through the junior ranks until dominating in the TAC Cup
TAC Cup
The TAC Cup is an under 18 Australian rules football representative competition held in Victoria, Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne with each team representing 12 Victorian regions....

 competition, winning back to back Morrish Medal
Morrish Medal
The Morrish Medal is an Australian rules football award.Formerly awarded to the Best and Fairest player in the VFL Under 19 competition , since 1992 the award has been given to the best player in the Victorian TAC Cup Under 18 competition.The Morrish Medal was named in honour of Tom Morrish, a...

s (2000 and 2001).

Richmond Tigers (2001 - 2006)

Rodan was recruited by AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 club Richmond Tigers at the end of 2001 at pick 33. He played every game for two years (from his debut in 2002), and was nominated for the AFL Rising Star award
AFL Rising Star award
The NAB AFL Rising Star award is given annually to a standout young player in the Australian Football League. Since 2007 the winner has been presented with the Ron Evans Medal and was first awarded in 1993...

 in his debut season and kicked 17 goals of which three were nominated for the Goal of the Year award
Goal of the Year (Australia)
The Goal of the Year is a competition for the best goals kicked in the VFL/AFL during that season. It is run in conjunction with the Mark of the Year competition and is currently sponsored by Panasonic. The award is also known as the Phil Manassa Medal....

.

Playing for Richmond, he played as a small crumbing forward along with Andrew Krakouer in the early part of his career.

He became an Australian citizen in September 2002 in order to get a passport to travel to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England to participate in an Australian Football Exhibition Match against Essendon as his Fijian passport had expired.

After the retirement of Matthew Knights
Matthew Knights
Matthew Knights is a former Australian rules football player, having played in the midfield for the Richmond Football Club from 1988 to 2002. He went on to a coaching career, most notably as head coach of the Essendon Football Club from 2008 to 2010...

, Rodan shifted into the midfield.

He did not participate in the 2005 regular season due to a severe knee injury. Rodan made a return to league football in 2006, but was delisted at the end of the season, first hearing of his sacking at the club's best and fairest
Best and Fairest
Best and Fairest is the term commonly used in Australian sport to describe the player adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition while not receiving a suspension for misconduct or breaching the rules during that season.In the...

 function via an impromptu speech from captain Kane Johnson
Kane Johnson
Kane "Johno" Johnson is a former Australian rules footballer and former captain of the Richmond Football Club and dual premiership winner with the Adelaide Crows in the Australian Football League .-Career:...

.

Port Adelaide (2007 - present)

Rodan was given a career lifeline when he was drafted by Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide Football Club
The Port Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, which plays in the Australian Football League and the South Australian National Football League...

 with the final selection of the 2006 AFL draft
2006 AFL Draft
The 2006 AFL Draft is a recent national draft of the Australian Football League. The AFL Draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League....

.

Rodan did not miss a game in the 2007 season, including the 2007 AFL Grand Final
2007 AFL Grand Final
The 2007 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and the Port Adelaide Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 29 September 2007. It was the 111th annual Grand Final of the VFL/AFL, staged to determine the...

. He received six Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...

 votes at the 2007 medal count including a best on ground 3 votes for his round 12 performance, putting him in the top 60 players in the competition.

Rodan ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament
Anterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament is a cruciate ligament which is one of the four major ligaments of the human knee. In the quadruped stifle , based on its anatomical position, it is referred to as the cranial cruciate ligament.The ACL originates from deep within the notch of the distal femur...

 in a training injury in December 2009 and was expected to miss the entire 2010 season
2010 AFL season
-Premiership season:The draw for the 2010 AFL Premiership Season is not a random selection of matches, but rather is planned by the AFL. It is intended to produce a balanced draw while also providing the fans and television networks with blockbuster games. In a competition with 16 teams and 22...

. However, following ligament augmentation and reconstruction surgery, which replaced the torn ligament with one made of polyester
Polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...

 fibres, Rodan was able to play in round six, 2010.

Personal life

Rodan has expressed his desire to see Australian rules football in Fiji succeed, and is an ambassador for Aussie Rules Pacific
Aussie Rules International
Aussie Rules International promotes and develops the sport of Australian rules football internationally. Committed to working with all stakeholders to assist the international growth of the sport, its focus is on:...

.

External links

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