Brett Backwell

Brett Backwell is an Australian rules football player who achieved some international notoriety in 2005 when he opted to have a finger removed to enable him to continue his chosen sport.

AFL career

Backwell played his junior football in Queensland. He was drafted to the elite AFL competition at number 67 selection in the 1998 AFL Draft. His father Owen was a winner of the QAFL's Grogan Medal in 1971 and 1975.

Backwell debuted in the opening Round of the 1999 season. Played primarily as a small forward, he showed some opportunist play and in his 18 games managed a creditable 12 goals. He was nominated for the AFL Rising Star award.

He spent much of 2001 playing in Carlton's Victorian Football League side where he won the J. J. Liston Trophy for best and fairest He was delisted at the end of the 2001 season.

SANFL career

Lured to South Australia by West Adelaide in an effort to rekindle his AFL career, Backwell quickly shone at this lower level of competition, finishing 4th in the Magarey Medal.

In 2003 Backwell moved to Glenelg, joining his former team mate from Carlton, Heath Culpitt. Selection in SANFL State teams followed 2003, 2005-2006, included the 2003 win over Western Australia, earning him the Fos Williams Medal for a best-on-ground performance

In 2006 Backwell won the highest individual award in the League, the Magarey Medal. In post-award interviews he said he has not given up hope of again playing in the AFL, and hoped his Magarey win will spark interest from other clubs

Finger amputation

In 2005 Backwell enjoyed a brief period of international celebrity status when he announced that he was to have part of his left ring finger amputated He was flown to the United States to appear on the September 22 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman

The finger had caused him constant pain and restricted movement since injuring it in 2002. Surgeons offered him the option of fusing the bones in his finger, but he declined this as it would not have allowed him to continue playing.

References

External sources

• www.blueseum.org summary of Carlton career
• ABC Sport Australian Broadcasting Commission article about the finger amputation
• SANFL News article on transfer to Glenelg
• FootySA summary of V/AFL career