Jamie Tape

Jamie Tape (15 April 1974 – 3 January 2003) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also played for the Woodville-West Torrens Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).

Jamie grew up in the small South Australian town of Coobowie on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

Football career

Jamie was a talented junior and was rewarded for his efforts by winning the Mail Medal for league best and fairest on the Yorke Peninsula. Tape enjoyed a highly-promising first three seasons with the Tigers, wearing number five and playing in 67 out of a possible 69 games and rewarded with an AFL Rising Star nomination in 1994. He shared Richmond's best first year player award with fellow South Australian rookie Matthew Rogers, as well as State of Origin representation. However, Tape began struggling with injury in following years, so much so that he managed just eight more games for Richmond before being traded to Collingwood with teammate Brad Smith in exchange for the Magpies' Aaron James and pick #71 in the 1997 AFL draft.

Tape's AFL career ended in 1999 after he could only manage to play a total of 16 games with Collingwood in his two years spent there. He played his last AFL game at just 25 years old. Following his delisting, he moved back to South Australia and played two more seasons with his original SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens and added another 19 games to his league tally.

Death and legacy

After having only just overcome a 10-month battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma, Tape died soon after a suspected brain aneurysm while at the wheel of his car having gone shopping for supplies for a barbecue, not far from his home on the evening of 3 January 2003. On 9 January, his family and friends gathered in Yorketown, South Australia, to pay their tributes.

His legacy is honoured at the Woodville-West Torrens Football Club, with the club awarding the 'Jamie Tape Medal' for "sacrificial acts" at each year's club awards night.

Playing statistics

91 5 7 742 415 1157 319 136 0.05 0.08 8.15 4.56 12.71 3.51 1.49