Past Nigel Lappin (1994-2008)

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not being biased but Lappin is clearly the best No2 draft pick. He played exceptionally well over his whole career, not just when the team was strong and he didnt have to move to a different club for his ability to come out.
 

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Common sense prevailed on the poll. As Tom said, will win a canter. He was the outright pick no. 2 (deservedly so) on AFL.COM's list of 40-1.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/126337/default.aspx

2 - NIGEL LAPPIN (BRISBANE LIONS)
Recruited from: Chiltern (1993)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, plenty of elite talent has been taken at pick two, but Lappin takes the cake. The gutsy, underrated midfielder was a dynamo for the Lions, playing 279 matches from 1994-08. He was also a three-time premiership player, four-time All Australian and a club champion. Other strong choices include Paul Hasleby (Fremantle - 1999) and two players that won flags at their second clubs in Brad Ottens (Richmond - 1997) and Luke Ball (St Kilda - 2001). Anthony Rocca (Sydney Swans - 1994) played just 22 of his 230 AFL matches from No.2. Recent selections Jarryd Roughead (Hawthorn - 2004), Dale Thomas (Collingwood - 2005), Trent Cotchin (Richmond - 2007), Nic Naitanui (West Coast - 2008) and Jack Trengove (Melbourne - 2009) are all possible heirs to Lappin's throne.
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Magnificent player.
 
One of the best players we have ever had.
Has helped the Cats a fair bit while he has been there too, with two of their premierships.a real quiet achiever our Nige.
He and Scotty make a pretty good team.they would have had a great time this year.
 
Ok I'll be honest. The Nigel lapping that I saw in 97/98 I was not a huge fan of as he couldn't lay a takcle. I remeber talking to a brownlow medalist from another club about him in 98 and this particular player seemed to regard Nigel as a bit soft. Within a couple of years it had all change for the boy from Chiltern in North East Victoria and he was one of the elite midfielders of the comp. Ok he was the only 1 of the fab four without a brownlow but he would not have looked out of place with one round his neck.

A guy that turned from a player who was just going to a true champion of our club

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5 Best Finals Performances In Lions History

Nigel Lappin – 2003 Grand Final

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He was rated a 3.5 out of 5 in Merrett-Murray Medal voting, behind only five teammates, but for pure courage and inspiration it was a perfect 5. Or better. He played in the grand final with two broken ribs, suffered in the preliminary final a week earlier, and a punctured lung, which was discovered after the game and is believed to have happened in a fitness test at training the day before. In an often-overlooked statistic, he played 100% game time for 19 possessions, more than all but three teammates. And not once did he give anything short of 100% physical commitment.
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2023 Queensland Hall of Fame – Nigel Lappin

It’s a great trivia question. In the Brisbane Lions’ golden era of 2001-02-03-04, when they won three premierships and played in a fourth grand final, who was the only player to win All-Australian selection each year? Michael Voss? Simon Black? Jason Akermanis?

No! Voss, Black and Akermanis, all Brownlow Medallists, were three-time All-Australians in this period. The only four-timer was Nigel Lappin.

Humble, self-effacing and all things modest, he was the under-rated superstar of the aptly-named ‘Fab Four’ but never by those who played with him or were closely involved with the Lions.

When Lappin, a perennial place-getter in the club championship, claimed the Merrett/Murray Medal in 2004 there was collective elation befitting one of the all-time greats.

Coach Leigh Matthews said it best: “As great as Nigel’s reputation was, he was an even better player than his reputation. He wasn’t a limelight player and sometimes high profile and ability get confused. The perfect player wins his own ball, uses it well when he has got it and works very hard to get it back off the opposition. Very few players have done that as well as Nigel.”

The message is clear. Don’t ever understate the qualities and the contribution of the player who wore #44 in arguably the greatest AFL side of all-time. An out-and-out champion who sits comfortably in the AFL Hall of Fame alongside #3, #20 and #12 – Voss, Black and Akermanis.

From the small town of Chiltern in north-east Victoria, a gold-mining area of the 1850s that had one hotel, motel, post office, butcher, bakery, grocery store, petrol station – and no traffic lights – he was born into a footballing family headed by father Jock, who famously kicked 11 goals for Chiltern in his 300th game – the 1982 grand final and coached Chiltern and nearby Brocklesby. It was a family that once had nine members in the same senior side.

Even before he was drafted, the school captain at Rutherglen High had played two years’ senior football with the Chiltern Swans, winning the best and fairest and All-Australian Teal Cup selection as a 17-year-old before being snapped up by the Bears via pick #2 in the 1993 National Draft.

Fortuitously, he arrived at the Gabba at the same time as ex-St.Kilda rover Danny Craven, who was from nearby Wangaratta and had lived in Chiltern from ages 10-15. Another 2023 Hall of Fame inductee, he and wife Kim played host family to the shy midfielder in his first year in Brisbane.

He debuted in Round 3 1993 against Fitzroy at the Gabba, two weeks after soon-to-be best mate Chris Scott and in Paul Roos’ 250th game and was pretty much a fixture in the Bears/Lions side thereafter when fit. If it wasn’t for a bad ankle that cost him the entire 2006 season and an achilles injury four games into 2008 that ended his career, he would have been a 300-gamer.

He played 279 games, including 103 in a row from 1998-2002, to sit fifth on the all-time Lions list. He had 5,911 possessions at 21.2 per game to rank third all-time behind Black and Voss, and kicked 174 goals. He played in the club’s first 23 finals, and finished 5th-3rd-12th-7th-2nd-3rd-7th-4th-1st-10th in the best and fairest from 1996-2005.

A footballer’s footballer, with endless courage, commitment, competitiveness, and consistency, he was equally effective playing back, midfield or forward, and was his own harshest critic – a trait that brought occasional mirth from teammates but endless respect and admiration.

He represented Victoria at State of Origin level in 1996-97-99 when the ‘Big V’ was reserved for the very best, and played in the 2001 International Rules series. After Voss’ retirement in 2006, he shared a five-man captaincy with Jonathan Brown, Simon Black, Luke Power and Chris Johnson.

Always afflicted by asthma, he provided an inspiring example to others when named 1998 Australian Asthma Sportsman of the Year.

He was the centrepiece of one of football’s great stories when he played in the 2003 grand final with two broken ribs and, unknowingly, a punctured lung. Having been crunched late in the preliminary final, he was touch and go all week and wasn’t helped when teammate Akermanis famously told the football world of his injury with TV camaras everywhere.

He faced a gruelling fitness test on grand final eve in which he had to mark high balls and was crunched in a heavy tackle about 15 or 20 times. He got through and 45 minutes before the first bounce declared himself ready to go. Sadly, his inclusion meant Scott, a 2001-02 premiership team member who was on standby after his own injury problems, did not play.

Deployed at half back, Lappin more than did his job in a big win, and in the closing moments dived habitually on a loose ball in heavy traffic. He knew no other way. But post-game he discovered the lung damage suffered in the fitness test, and while teammates flew back to Brisbane with the premiership cup he had to travel by car.

No sooner had he retired he was snapped up by Geelong as a coach in 2009. When Scott was appointed senior coach at the Cats in 2011, they were reunited for what would be another glorious period that he has shared with wife Claire and four daughters – Milla, Chloe, Ally and Meg. He quickly became Scott’s right-hand-man while enjoying the more relaxed lifestyle of Geelong. A little bit like Chiltern.
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Where Are They Now?: '03 Premiership Team

Nigel Lappin has been at Geelong since 2009 and a member of Chris Scott’s coaching team since his long-time best mate arrived at the Cattery in 2011. Like Scott, he’s won two flags coaching. A father of four daughters.
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