Darren Millane
Encyclopedia
Darren "Pants" Millane (9 August 1965 – 7 October 1991) was an Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 player in the VFL/AFL for the Collingwood Football Club
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 between 1984 and 1991.

AFL career

A highly skillful and strongly built wingman, Darren Millane was one of Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

's greatest footballers before a shocking, fatal car accident
Car accident
A traffic collision, also known as a traffic accident, motor vehicle collision, motor vehicle accident, car accident, automobile accident, Road Traffic Collision or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction,...

 ended his career in 1991 at the age of 26.

Millane was considered by Sydney
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

 and St Kilda, but Hawthorn
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...

 won the chance, with Millane training at Glenferrie
Glenferrie Oval
Glenferrie Oval is an Australian rules football stadium located in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.It is the historic home of and is synonymous with the Hawthorn Football Club, who played there from 1903 and as a VFL/AFL club from 1925–1973, and retained the ground as an...

 with the Hawks, but did not like the atmosphere and went back to captain Dandenong
Dandenong Football Club
Dandenong Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association . Based in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong, the Redlegs wore navy blue and red as their club colours.-History:...

 in the Victorian Football Association U/18s. Collingwood snapped him up and Millane liked what he saw, and his football career came along nicely, debuting in 1984, aged 19.

In 1987, Millane won the best and fairest
Copeland Trophy
The E.W. Copeland Trophy is an Australian rules football award given by the Collingwood Football Club to the player adjudged Best and Fairest for Collingwood during the year....

 award. He found his place on the wing and was a footballer known for his toughness and attitude towards the game. He was most likely the recipient on the end of the kick-outs because of his strength. Although his skills were occasionally poor, at his best he found and used the football well, and became a favourite to fans at Victoria Park
Victoria Park, Melbourne
Victoria Park is a sports venue in Abbotsford a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Built for the purpose of both Australian rules football and cricket, the stadium is oval shaped....

.

In 1990, the premiership drought breaking year for the Magpies, Millane was at his peak. He won the AFL Players Association
AFL Players Association
The AFL Players Association, or AFLPA, is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League players....

 MVP
Most Valuable Player
In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...

 Award, now known as the Leigh Matthews Trophy
Leigh Matthews Trophy
The Leigh Matthews Trophy is an annual award given by the AFL Players Association to the Most Valuable Player in the Australian Football League. It is named in honour of Leigh Matthews, who won the first MVP award in 1982, when the league was still known as the Victorian Football League...

; was selected in the AFL Team of the Year for the first time; and came second in Collingwood's best and fairest; but it was his finals campaign that was recognised. He broke his thumb just before the series, but bravely continued to play with pain-killers during the campaign. In the Grand Final, against Essendon
Essendon Football Club
The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

, he had 24 touches, and ended up throwing the ball up in the air as the siren went at 5:11 pm to end Collingwood's thirty-two year drought on 6 October.

Career highlights

  • Collingwood
    Collingwood Football Club
    The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     best and fairest
    Copeland Trophy
    The E.W. Copeland Trophy is an Australian rules football award given by the Collingwood Football Club to the player adjudged Best and Fairest for Collingwood during the year....

     1987
  • Collingwood 2nd best and fairest
    Copeland Trophy
    The E.W. Copeland Trophy is an Australian rules football award given by the Collingwood Football Club to the player adjudged Best and Fairest for Collingwood during the year....

     1990
  • AFL Team of the Year 1990
  • Leigh Matthews Trophy
    Leigh Matthews Trophy
    The Leigh Matthews Trophy is an annual award given by the AFL Players Association to the Most Valuable Player in the Australian Football League. It is named in honour of Leigh Matthews, who won the first MVP award in 1982, when the league was still known as the Victorian Football League...

     1990
  • Collingwood premiership side 1990
  • Collingwood Team of the Century member

Millane's death

On 7 October 1991, Millane was killed in a car crash while intoxicated. On the early morning of the day, he was driving on Queens Road, near Albert Park
Albert Park
Albert Park may refer to:In Australia:* Albert Park, Lismore, home to international baseball stadium Baxter Field* Albert Park, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne** Albert Park and Lake, the park itself...

 Lake, before he clipped a semi-trailer and rolled his car, being killed instantly. The autopsy revealed his blood alcohol content
Blood alcohol content
Blood alcohol content , also called blood alcohol concentration, blood ethanol concentration, or blood alcohol level is most commonly used as a metric of alcohol intoxication for legal or medical purposes....

 was 0.322 — almost six-and-a-half times the legal driving limit of 0.05. He was on his way to his Noble Park home, and that day he was set to join nineteen other members of the 1990 premiership side, but that reunion never happened, as players, officials, and fans set off instead to mourn at Victoria Park.

The no. 42 on the Black and White Guernsey had also been retired from the game.

The funeral was held at Dandenong Town Hall, where more than 5000 people attended, while large crowds heard the service on a loud-speaker outside the venue. Millane's Guernsey with no. 42 on it was laid on the coffin, while the 1990 flag hung in the background at half-mast.

Famous quotes

  • "People like that  ... you believe they're never going to die" – Peter 'Crackers' Keenan
    Peter Keenan
    Peter 'Crackers' Keenan is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne, Essendon and North Melbourne in the Victorian Football League during the 1970s....

     (Collingwood ruck coach)
  • "If you don't get goose bumps on your neck when his name is mentioned, then I don't think you have got the character to be around the club" – Collingwood captain Tony Shaw
    Tony Shaw
    Anthony 'Tony' Shaw is a former Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality.-Playing career:Shaw was recruited to Collingwood from Reservoir-Lakeside to make his debut in 1977 alongside brother Ray...

  • "If he had been here tonight, he would want you all to have a good time ... so lift your chins and make sure you get out there next year and win the flag" – Brother John Millane, when accepting the Phonse Kyne
    Phonse Kyne
    Alphonsius E. "Phonse" Kyne was an Australian rules footballer who played for and coached Collingwood in the Victorian Football League. He is an inductee of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and a member of the official Collingwood Team of the Century...

     Trophy, for services to the club, awarded to Millane.
  • ""'MILLANE KILLED"'" – Herald Sun
    Herald Sun
    The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...

     newspaper headline, 7 October 1991.

External links

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