Chris Connolly

Chris Connolly (born 25 March 1963) is a former Australian rules football player, coach and administrator, most notable for his six years as senior coach of the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Playing career

Melbourne Football Club During his playing career with the Melbourne Football Club, Connolly played 84 games and kicked 38 goals as a midfielder. He played from 1982 to 1987, and in 1989, with his career being interrupted and ultimately cut short by knee injuries.

Playing career timeline 1978 – captain of Goulburn Valley schoolboys side, winners of Under 15 Victorian State Championships 1979–1980 – Victorian Under 17 Teal Cup representative, Victorian vice-captain, 1980 1980 – senior premiership with Shepparton United 1981 – Melbourne Football Club Under 19 premiership 1982 – Melbourne Football Club Under 19 captain and Club Champion 1982–1990 – Melbourne Football Club senior player 1983, 1985, 1986 – fourth in Club Championship 1987 and 1990 – knee reconstructions 1990 – retired from the Melbourne Football Club. 1991 – made a Life Member of the Melbourne Football Club

Coaching career Melbourne Football Club In 1991, Connolly was appointed as assistant coach at the Melbourne Football Club under senior coach John Northey. Hawthorn won this game, with Ben Dixon kicking the winning goal after the siren.

Fremantle Football Club Connolly took over the coaching role at the Dockers for the 2002 season, when he became the senior coach of Fremantle Football Club after their wooden spoon season of 2001. Connolly replaced Fremantle Football Club caretaker senior coach Ben Allan, who replaced Damian Drum, after Drum was sacked during the middle of the 2001 season. Connolly was given the chance to coach for two more games, but declined the offer. He departed the Dockers with a 52% coaching success rate. He was replaced by assistant coach Mark Harvey as caretaker senior coach of Fremantle Football Club for the rest of the 2007 season, and who was eventually employed full-time senior coach.

In 2013, an investigation into Melbourne's 2009 season found Connolly and former senior coach Dean Bailey guilty of discussions not in the best interests of the AFL. The charges related most specifically to a meeting in July 2009. This occasion became known colloquially as 'the vault' meeting, in which Connolly allegedly openly discussed the potential benefits to the club of tanking.

As a result of the AFL's investigation, Connolly was banned from serving in any position at Melbourne until February 2014. However, following the resignation of both the CEO and president, Connolly was sacked by the Melbourne Football Club in October 2013.

2014 onwards – Media Connolly continues his involvement in the AFL arena, writing for the AFL Record and AFL website. He has also provided special comments on ABC Radio and AFL Live, as well as working with Croc Media on the Footy WA television show.

2008–2017 – ABC Radio special comments commentator 2008–2017 – Croc Media television and radio commentator 2014 – AFL Media website and AFL Record writer

In 2018, Connolly was made a Life Member of the Shepparton United Football Club, recognising his ongoing support for and dedication to the club since first playing there in 1978.

Advanced High Performance (AHP) 2014– In 2014, Connolly also became a founding partner of Advanced High Performance (advancedhp.com.au) with Mark Campbell, Martin Sperring and Wayne Oswald, specialising in designing software and support programs for community clubs, administrators, coaches and players.

Advanced Coach Mentoring (ACM) In conjunction with educationist and successful community club coach Peter Nicholson, AHP has designed a coach mentoring program to educate, develop and support community clubs and their coaches.

Advanced Kick Coaching (AKC) In conjunction with kicking expert, Dr Kevin Ball, AHP has designed a kicking analysis method and home coaching program in order to educate young footballers regarding how to improve their kicking.

CLUBMAP 2015 Connolly, AHP partners and sports administration expert Terry Dillon designed a range of tools to analyse, educate, direct and support sport governing bodies and community clubs. CLUBMAP (clubmap.com.au) is joining major community groups and commercial partners to work with organisations from 65 sports; 7500+ volunteer administrators from 3000+ clubs across Australia and internationally.

Teaching career Connolly – who has a Bachelor of Education, majoring in physical education and science – taught at Northcote Technical School, and at Pembroke Secondary College in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He taught classes in physical education, health studies and specialist sporting activities.