- Wayne Harmes
Wayne Harmes (born 9 February 1960) is a former
Australian rules football er in the Victorian Football League. [citebook|title=Australian Football: Steps to Success|author= Trevor D. Jaques, Andrew McLeod|year=2005|id=ISBN 0736060057]Football career
Recruited from Oak Park, as a youngster Harmes was perceived to have a lot of talent, winning "
The Sun " newspapers' "Sunkick" competition. Added to this was the fact he was the nephew of VFL legendNorm Smith . Harmes debuted in 1977 for theCarlton Football Club , going on to play 169 games for 86 goals until his retirement, forced by weight problems in his later career, in 1988. Throughout his career he was considered "hard at the ball" and his 173cm frame, while not tall, was solid and well-built, which allowed him to throw around his considerable strength and made him a tough player. He represented Victoria inState of Origin in 1979 and 1986.1979 VFL Grand Final
Harmes' crowning achievement as a player was in the
1979 VFL Grand Final where he won the inauguralNorm Smith Medal for best player on the ground during a Grand Final. The match itself became part of football folklore for the last minute heroics displayed by Harmes - he famously slid along the ground and knocked the ball back into play to set up the winning goal, scored byKen Sheldon . A great debate emerged whether the ball wentout of bounds or not at the point Harmes knocked it back in.The match was the first of Harmes' three premiership wins, with him being a part of Carlton's 1981 and 1982 flags.
Post-playing career
After his playing career, Harmes has been widely outspoken for his views on the current state of
Australian rules football , particularly the latest2006 AFL rule changes . He has claimed that the game is starting to resemblebasketball and bemoans the lack ofcontested possession s, which were commonplace in his playing days.In 2006 Harmes appeared in a television commercial for
Toyota 's Memorable Moments series, where he was filmed in a recreation of the final moments of the 1979 Grand Final (withStephen Curry andDave Lawson ). The commercial was filmed at a local park and took several takes to get right, which caused a large degree of pain for Harmes, he later said.In 2006 Wayne Harmes coached the Macleod Football Club in Melbourne's Suburban Diamond Valley Football League (DVFL), Now known as the Northern Football League (NFL).
In October 2008, Wayne Harmes was appointed as Senior Coach of Lower Plenty Football Club in the Northern Football League (NFL). His wealth of experience and football knowledge will help to provide a fantastic platform for the development of their young list, especially the likes of smacky and ricky mydler.
References
External links
* [http://bigpondguide.com/15931v_1_5_toyota Toyota memorable moments advertisement featuring Wayne Harmes re-enacting his part in the Sheldon goal of the 1979 Grand Final]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.