| Mick Bates | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Michael Bates | ||
| Date of birth | 26 June 1949 | ||
| Original team(s) | Reservoir Old Boys | ||
| Height | 196 cm (6 ft 5 in) | ||
| Weight | 87 kg (192 lb) | ||
| Position(s) | Ruck | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1971 | Essendon | 2 (1) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1971. | |||
| Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com | |||
Mick Bates (born 26 June 1949) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the Victorian Football League (VFL). [1]
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, or simply called Aussie rules, football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of eighteen players on an oval-shaped field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval-shaped ball between goal posts or between behind posts.
The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Thought to have formed in 1872, the club played its first recorded game on 7 June 1873 against a Carlton Second 20, winning 1 goal to nil. The club played a senior club in the Victorian Football Association in 1878, one year after the VFA formed. It is historically associated with Essendon, a suburb in the north-west of Melbourne, Victoria. Since 2013, the club has been headquartered at The Hangar, Melbourne Airport, and plays its home games at either Docklands Stadium or the Melbourne Cricket Ground; throughout most of its history the club's home ground and headquarters was Windy Hill, Essendon, where it played from 1922 until 1991. While it stopped playing games at the ground thereafter, Windy Hill remained its training and administration base until the end of 2013. Dyson Heppell is the current team captain.
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body, and is responsible for controlling the laws of the game. The league was founded as the Victorian Football League (VFL) as a breakaway from the previous Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season commencing in 1897. Originally comprising only teams based in the Australian state of Victoria, the competition's name was changed to the Australian Football League for the 1990 season, after expanding to other states throughout the 1980s.
