FIELDS, Neville

"Nifty" Neville Fields was a dashing centreman with a magnificent left-foot kick. He arrived at Windy Hill from Essendon High School and was hailed as a superstar in his early years, but he lacked consistency.

In 1971 Fields won the the Essendon Reserves Best and Fairest award as well as the seniors' Most Improved Player award.

His great form continued in 1972 when he was Essendon's Best and Fairest and the Brownlow Medal favourite that same year, but polled disappointingly.

That same year Fields was selected in The Sun newspaper All Star team in the centre, won the Inside Football magazine player of the year award as well.

He was Essendon second highest Brownlow Medal vote getter in 1972 (equal) and 1973 and was equal third top in 1976. He was also Essendon's third top goalkicker in 1972 and 1974. His best goalkicking performance was 6 goals against South Melbourne in 1973.

Fields was a Victorian state representative in 1973.

He was not the same dominant force later in his career and was cleared to South Melbourne in 1978 where he played 60 games between 1978 and 1980, and again represented Victoria against the A.C.T. in 1980.

His transfer to South Melbourne was one of the League's most complex and one of Essendon's best. It involved the transfer of South Melbourne's Norm Goss to Hawthorn, Hawthorn's Peter Bennett and Bernie Jones to Essendon, Fields to South Melbourne, South Melbourne's Terry Daniher and the as-yet unseen Neale Daniher to Essendon. It was a great deal for Essendon and was capped off when Fields returned to Essendon in 1981.

Fields was 30 when he returned to Windy Hill and stayed for two seasons but only played five senior games.

He was later appointed coach of Labrador in Queensland in 1988.

His son, Tom, played two games for Carlton in 2015.