SALMON, Paul

Paul Salmon, known as "Fish", was a brilliant, high flying full-forward and ruckman who came from North Ringwood to the Under 19s. He was a champion junior player who had been an All-Australian Teal Cup representative on three occasions and won the Larke Medal as best and fairest in the Teal Cup in 1991.

At 205 cm he was one of the tallest men to play League football and with his strong hands and long reach he seemed almost impossible to outmark.

Salmon played nine games in his first season then had an remarkable start to 1984 by kicking seven, seven and then eight goals in the first three rounds. He had 63 goals by Round 13 and looked certain to be heading for 100 plus when he injured his knee against Collingwood and missed the remainder of the season. A measure of the impact he had made was the extraordinary newspaper coverage of his injury. His 63 goals were still enough for him to lead Essendon's goalkicking that year.

He kicked 10 goals in the Reserves in his first game back after his knee reconstruction and had a similarly successful return to senior football in mid-1985, kicking seven goals in a semi-final against Sydney in only his second game for the year. He kicked another six in the premiership win against Hawthorn.

He was Essendon's top goalkicker in 1987 with 43 goals and was second top in 1986. He booted eleven goals in a game in 1986 and again in 1987 and also kicked nine in 1987. He kicked eight goals twice in 1984 and in 1986 and seven goals four times in 1984, 1985 and 1986. He holds the Essendon record for the most goals in Round 6 with eight, Round 6 with eight, Round 15 with Round 16 with nine, Round 19 with 11 and Round 22 with seven. He also holds the record with 11 goals for the most goals kicked against Richmond.

Salmon was a member of the Reserves 1983 premiership side. He represented Victoria seven times and was chosen in the All-Australian team in 1987. He was Essendon's second top Brownlow Medal vote scorer in 1987 and equal third top in 1984 and won the Most Improved Player award of the year. He was a member of the 1993 premiership side playing ruck and full-forward.

He became dissatisfied with his role as full-forward and wanted to spend more time in the ruck, but found it difficult to cement that role against the likes of team-mates Simon Madden, and later, Steve Alessio and Peter Somerville. He transferred to Hawthorn in 1996 where he was finally able to fulfil this ambition. The complex deal which enabled him to go to Hawthorn brought Paul Barnard and Sean Wellman to Essendon and saw Darren Jarman return to Adelaide.

Salmon retired in 2001 after 100 games, two best and fairest awards and another All-Australian selection with Hawthorn, but made a surprising comeback with Essendon in 2002. He made his first appearance for the season in Round 7 against Carlton at the MCG and played a further 14 games before retiring for good at the end of the year.

In all he played 324 games for the two clubs and was awarded AFL Life membership in 1998.

After retirement, he became a director of Journey Corporation, a travel company he owned with his brother and ran his own business, Premium Brands Group. He also spent time as a radio and TV football commentator.

Salmon was selected at number 28 in the Champions of Essendon (2002).