- The football legend returns to play in the 35 park
- Fevola’s daughter says her father refuses to retire
- Fevola made his debut for Carlton in 1999.
Brendan Fevola’s daughter Lulu has revealed her AFL great dad is still lacing up his boots to play footy on the weekends after swearing he finally retired last year.
The former Carlton and Brisbane forward played his final game for the Diamond Valley Super Rules Football Club in Melbourne’s northeast in 2023, or so he said at the time.
“It was my fourth senior grand final and I’m done,” he said.
‘I went out to occupy a position as prime minister. After 37 years of the game that I love so much and has given me so much more.
Fevola smiles with the trophy with her daughters Leni and Lulu after winning a grand final in 2023
‘It’s time to say goodbye. What a way to end a flag. I’m cooked.’
But now his daughter Lulu has posted a video clip of her beloved 43-year-old father still playing competitive soccer in the park with over-35s.
The clip posted on TikTok shows the burly striker beating a defender and kicking into the goal.
“We because (because) this man refuses to retire,” he captioned the video.
Fevola had a checkered AFL career, debuting in 1999 for Carlton and playing 204 first grade matches, kicking 623 goals.
While he dominated at reserve level in 1999, kicking 42 goals, before making his AFL debut in the number 25 Guernsey made famous by Carlton legend Alex Jesaulenko, Fevola struggled to translate that form to the senior level .
A series of bad games, bad body language on the field and a series of off-field incidents meant that Carlton had senior coach Wayne Brittain ready to trade or remove Fevola from the roster at the end of the 2002 season.
It was fortunate for the Blues that he didn’t, as Fevola suddenly found great form that saw him become the club’s seven-time top scorer between 2003 and 2009, and a two-time Coleman Medal winner in 2006 and 2009. and three-time All Australian.
Fevola (pictured with his family) had a colorful AFL career that debuted in 1999.
A fresh-faced Fevola smiles for his team portrait ahead of the 2001 season with Carlton
However, off-field problems continued to plague the key forward, culminating in him infamously selling his second Coleman Medal to fund his gambling addiction.
This led Carlton to make the surprising decision to trade him to the Brisbane Lions in 2009.
Fevola would only play 17 games for his new team in 2010, spending time in a Brisbane mental health clinic and struggling to address his demons.
Expelled from the AFL system at the end of the 2010 season, Fevola would go on to play in lower divisions across the country, including Victoria and Tasmania.