A very happy 50th to Neil Gaghan today!
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From the Blueseum:
Career : 1985
Debut : Round 11, 1985 vs Collingwood, aged 22 years, 78 days
Carlton Player No. 928
Games : 3
Goals : 0
Last Game : Round 13, 1985 vs St Kilda, aged 22 years, 90 days
Guernsey No. 52
Height : 183cm
Weight : 79kg
DOB : 24 March, 1963
When the ill-fated Brisbane Bears were established at Carrara on the Gold Coast in 1986, the AFL decreed that to supplement the fledgling club, each of the other league teams were required to release two or more players to them.
One of Carlton’s nominations was Neil Gaghan, a 23 year-old utility who had managed just three senior games for the Blues before taking a prominent role in Carlton’s 1986 Reserves Premiership. Neil agreed to the move, and travelled north to play another three senior games for the Bears in 1987, but was then delisted. Having taken a liking to life in the Sunshine State, Gaghan settled in Brisbane, where he joined the Kedron-Grange Football Club and gave them good service for a number of seasons.
In 1993, Gaghan took over the role of coaching Kedron-Grange, where he was ably assisted by two very high-profile ex-Blues in Jim Buckley as part-time football manager, and Wayne Johnston as the club’s star new recruit. Then, only three weeks into the season, Gaghan stepped down from his role because of work commitments – thus allowing Johnston to become captain-coach of the club.
Neil’s younger brother was an absolutely outstanding prospect as a junior, and would have been eligible to go to Carlton from one of the Blues’ prime recruiting zones. Sadly, he was killed in his mid-teens in a car accident on the Hume Highway.
Neil Gaghan was originally recruited through Fawkner / Moomba Park and then the Blues Under 19’s. At a very young age, he had also played with the Blues Little League in 1974.
Career Highlights
1984 – 7th Reserves Best & Fairest
1985 – Equal 6th Reserves Best & Fairest
1986 – Reserves Premiership