Wayne Harmes
Personal information
Full name Wayne Harmes
Date of birth (1960-02-09) 9 February 1960
Original team(s) Oak Park
Height 176 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 85 kg (187 lb)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1977–1988 Carlton 169 (86)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1988.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Wayne Harmes (born 9 February 1960) is a retired Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League.[1]

Football career

Recruited from Oak Park, as a youngster Harmes was perceived to have a lot of talent, finishing third in the 1976 Morrish Medal and winning The Sun newspaper's "Sunkick" competition.[2] He was a grandson of Len Smith[3] and the great nephew of Norm Smith (whose namesake medal he would win in 1979). Harmes debuted in 1977 for the Carlton Football Club, going on to play 169 games for 86 goals until his retirement, due to weight problems in his later career, in 1988. Throughout his career he was considered "hard at the ball" and whilst not tall (176 cm (5 ft 9 in)), he was able to outmark taller opponents.[4] A solid and very well-built (90 kg) player, which allowed him to throw around his considerable strength and made him a tough player. He represented Victoria in State 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 inaugural Norm 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 slid along the ground and knocked the ball back into play to set up the winning goal, scored by Ken Sheldon. A debate emerged whether the ball went out of bounds or not at the point Harmes knocked it back in however new footage was found in 2023 that showed that Harmes did successfully keep the ball in.[5]

The match was the first of Harmes' three premiership wins, with him being a part of Carlton's 1981 and 1982 flags.

Statistics

[6]
Legend
  G  
Goals
  K  
Kicks
  D  
Disposals 
  T  
Tackles
  B  
Behinds 
  H  
Handballs 
  M  
Marks
  #  
Played in that season's 
premiership team
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1977Carlton54 10010100.00.01.00.01.00.00
1978Carlton37 174618152233650.20.410.63.113.73.85
1979#Carlton37 2425263041034071051.01.112.74.317.04.412
1980Carlton37 115311667183470.50.310.56.116.64.30
1981#Carlton37 1511718669255510.70.512.44.617.03.44
1982#Carlton37 211412253883411070.70.612.04.216.25.17
1983Carlton37 1948233903231120.20.412.34.717.05.98
1984Carlton37 122911260172510.20.89.35.014.34.30
1985Carlton37 19132018479263880.71.19.74.213.84.64
1986Carlton37 19622311043351040.30.112.25.517.65.512
1987Carlton37 0
1988Carlton37 1121076341102420.20.96.93.110.02.20.20
Career 169861031877746262375420.50.611.14.415.54.50.252

Honours and achievements

Team

Individual

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 latest 2006 AFL rule changes. He has claimed that the game is starting to resemble basketball and bemoans the lack of contested possessions, 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 (with Stephen Curry and Dave 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).

References

  1. Trevor D. Jaques, Andrew McLeod (2005). Australian Football: Steps to Success. Human Kinetics. ISBN 0-7360-6005-7.
  2. "Tonight's winner faces Hawks next week". The Football Record: 3. 26 July 1977.
  3. "Coach's Welcome Home". The Age. 26 July 1961.
  4. "Century for Wayne Harmes". The Football Record: 11. 18 June 1983.
  5. "Rhett Bartlett on X". Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  6. "Wayne Harmes". AFL Tables. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
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