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If ever a player’s tenure in his club’s top 100 games played of all time was hobbled by injury, it would have to be Essendon’s Courtney Dempsey, who played his 133rd – and final – game for the Bombers in 2016.
Dempsey, who sits in the ‘hot seat’ at number 100 on the club’s list of all-time games played list is in danger of losing his place at the table of Bombers top 100 functions after only three years of invites.
Those pressing for his place were recruited from three different states and will need to put together a significant tally of games to usurp him.
Ex-Frankston VFL player and 32-year-old Mark Baguley needs to play ten games while Western Australian David Myers and Tasmanian Tom Bellchambers (who both turn 30 this season) require 17 and 20 games, respectively, to clear the bar and gain an elite position in Essendon’s 122-year VFL/AFL history.
Dempsey was born in the outback mining town of Mount Isa and played his early football (after age 12) in Cairns.
He was recruited from Queensland team Morningside by the great supporter of indigenous footballers Kevin Sheedy, who coached him in his first two seasons of AFL.
In 2006, he played five losing games in his debut season and from then on was beset by hamstring, knee and other injuries to such an extent that he managed no more than 20 games in a season, and only reached that number in three of his 11 seasons.
In four seasons, he played five games or fewer and, overall, averaged just over 12 games per season. This is in stark contrast to Geelong’s Joel Selwood, who has never played fewer than 20 games in any of his 12 seasons and has averaged over 22.5 games per season. Selwood was profiled in one of my earlier articles about possible AFL top 100 game player inductees in 2019.
His meagre game numbers in his earlier years meant that he had to wait until his third year to play in his first winning team in game seven. Throughout his whole career, he never played in a winning team against Geelong (in eight games) and in only one victory against Sydney (also in eight games).
Despite this, his running out of defence made him an invaluable member of the Essendon team in both 2009 and 2010 and, after his return from a knee reconstruction, in 2012.
He deserves a better fate than just a cameo role for a few years at the bottom of Essendon’s all time top 100 game players.
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