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Stan Alves

Australian rules footballer, born 1946

Neil Stanley "Stan" Alves, OAM (born 22 May 1946) is a former Australian rules football player and coach.

01Playing career

Melbourne

Alves played 226 games and kicked a total of 160 goals for the Melbourne Football Club from 1965 until 1976. captaining them from 1973-1976 and finishing runner-up for the Brownlow Medal in 1975.

North Melbourne

Alves joined North Melbourne in 1977. Legend has it that he chose to play for North Melbourne rather than Collingwood based on a coin toss. It proved to be a wise decision as North Melbourne met Collingwood in the 1977 Grand Final and, after initially playing a 76-all draw, won the replay 151-124.

Alves played 40 games for North Melbourne and kicked a total of 14 goals from 1977 until 1979 before retiring from his playing career.

02Coaching career

St Kilda Football Club senior coach (1994-1998)

Alves became senior coach of St Kilda in 1994, when he replaced Ken Sheldon. In the 1994 season, St Kilda under Alves finished 13th on the ladder out of 15 teams in a disappointing season. The following 1995 season, St Kilda once again under Alves had another disappointing season as they finished 14th out of 16 teams. St Kilda won the 1996 pre-season competition. In the 1996 season, St Kilda under Alves had another disappointing season, after a promising pre-season competition to find itself finished 10th after round 22. St Kilda won just 10 games for the season.

Alves however went on to coach St Kilda in the 1997 season to finish as runners up and first grand final in 26 years in 1997, where St Kilda under Alves lost to Adelaide by thirty-one points in the 1997 AFL Grand Final. This earned Alves the AFL Coach of the Year award. In the 1998 season, St Kilda under Alves had a great start winning 11 of its first 14 games, but an end of season drop of form saw St Kilda drop down the ladder. St Kilda again qualified for the Finals Series finishing sixth. In the 1998 Finals Series, St Kilda were eliminated by Melbourne In the semi-final. At the end of the 1998 season, Alves was sacked as St Kilda Football Club senior coach. Alves was then replaced by Tim Watson as St Kilda Football Club senior coach.

03Awards

On 24 October 2000, Alves was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australian football. On 26 January 2008, Alves was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for "service to Australian Rules football as a player, coach and commentator, and to the community as a supporter of charitable organisations".

04Statistics

Playing statistics

Legend
  G   Goals   K   Kicks   D   Disposals    T   Tackles
  B   Behinds    H   Handballs    M   Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1965 Melbourne 1512121151312832, N/a0.10.29.61.110.72.7, N/a
1966 Melbourne 15182122544429863, N/a0.10.714.12.416.63.5, N/a
1967 Melbourne 1518752964834483, N/a0.40.316.42.719.14.6, N/a
1968 Melbourne 151820172787034874, N/a1.10.915.43.919.34.1, N/a
1969 Melbourne 152016203177238989, N/a0.81.015.93.619.54.5, N/a
1970 Melbourne 15203163188440298, N/a0.20.815.94.220.14.9, N/a
1971 Melbourne 15189172768135792, N/a0.50.915.34.519.85.1, N/a
1972 Melbourne 1521221437362435136, N/a1.00.717.83.020.76.5, N/a
1973 Melbourne 1522292731883401120, N/a1.31.214.53.818.25.5, N/a
1974 Melbourne 15211124343114457123, N/a0.51.116.35.421.85.9, N/a
1975 Melbourne 1520261932097417105, N/a1.31.116.85.122.05.5, N/a
1976 Melbourne 1518141922512034573, N/a0.81.112.56.719.24.1, N/a
1977 North Melbourne 2163112238130484, N/a0.20.713.95.119.05.3, N/a
1978 North Melbourne 262374229627, N/a0.30.512.33.716.04.5, N/a
1979 North Melbourne 2189142108429466, N/a0.50.811.74.716.33.7, N/a
Career 266 174 220 3940 1075 5015 1265 , N/a 0.7 0.8 14.9 4.1 18.9 4.8 , N/a

Coaching statistics

Legend
 W  Wins  L  Losses  D  Draws  W%  Winning percentage  LP  Ladder position  LT  League teams
Season Team Games W L D W % LP LT
1994 St Kilda 22714134.1%1315
1995 St Kilda 22814036.4%1416
1996 St Kilda 221012045.5%1016
1997 St Kilda 25178068.0%116
1998 St Kilda 241311054.2%616
Career totals 115 55 59 1 48.3%
Watch videos about Stan AlvesExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Stan Alves, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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