Tyson Edwards

Tyson Edwards
Personal information
Full name	Tyson Edwards
Date of birth	(1976-08-06) 6 August 1976
Place of birth	Adelaide, Australia
Original team(s)	West Adelaide (SANFL)
Draft	21st overall, 1994 Pre-Season draft Adelaide
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	81 kg (179 lb)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1995–2010	Adelaide	321 (192)
International team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2002	Australia	2 (?)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2010.
Career highlights
2× AFL premiership player (1997, 1998) Showdown Medal: Round 6, 2006 Adelaide Football Club Hall Of Fame Merv Agars Medal: 2008
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Tyson Edwards (born 6 August 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer with the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Raised in the small Mallee town of Wynarka, around 120 km from Adelaide, he is widely regarded as one of the most consistent and durable players to have played the game.

Between the ages of 11 and 15, Edwards' mother Jan would drive him the 250 km round trip to Adelaide at least twice a week so that he could train with West Adelaide's junior teams.

Recruited from West Adelaide in the SANFL, Edwards made his AFL debut in 1995 and subsequently established himself as one of the AFL's most consistent and underrated midfielders. This is to such an extent that he has not won any of the AFL's major awards, or even a club best-and-fairest award; his greatest honours were being a member of Adelaide's 1997 and 1998 premiership sides.

In 2008, he placed fourth in the Crows Club Champion voting, with 137 votes, again highlighting his consistency within the playing group.

Edwards played his 300th game for the Adelaide Crows against Essendon in Round 11, 2009. The Crows won the match 21.4 (130) – 18.6 (114), and Edwards celebrated by gathering an equal-career-best 41 possessions. Four games later, he and dual-premiership teammate Andrew McLeod played their 290th match together, setting a new VFL/AFL record in the process; they extended this record to 307 games, which, as of the end of the 2022 AFL season, remains the league record.

On 27 May 2010, Edwards announced his retirement from the AFL, effective immediately, after being dropped from the Adelaide side. Coach Neil Craig later agreed to allow Edwards a farewell game, his 321st, the next week against Fremantle in Adelaide. The decision worked wonders, with the Crows upsetting the second-placed Dockers by 23 points, with Edwards again celebrating his milestone with a best-on-ground effort featuring 32 possessions and two goals.

On 19 March 2011, Edwards revealed he had battled testicular cancer in his final year at the Adelaide Crows, in what he described as his "year from hell".

Edwards was an assistant coach at the Port Adelaide Football Club from seasons 2012 to 2015.

Personal life

He is married to Mandy with three sons: Jackson, Luke, and Brodie.

Jackson was drafted as a father–son selection in the 2017 Rookie draft but was delisted after one season without playing a match, while Luke was drafted by the West Coast Eagles as the 52nd pick in the 2020 AFL draft.

Playing statistics

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
1995	Adelaide	37	12	2	2	82	69	151	26	8	0.2	0.2	6.8	5.8	12.6	2.2	0.7
1996	Adelaide	37	17	7	3	94	61	155	41	26	0.4	0.2	5.5	3.6	9.1	2.4	1.5
1997	Adelaide	9	17	5	3	108	69	177	57	34	0.3	0.2	6.4	4.1	10.4	3.4	2.0
1998	Adelaide	9	15	11	1	93	52	145	42	13	0.7	0.1	6.2	3.5	9.7	2.8	0.9
1999	Adelaide	9	20	20	5	144	85	229	72	31	1.0	0.3	7.2	4.3	11.5	3.6	1.6
2000	Adelaide	9	22	14	12	313	122	435	114	47	0.6	0.5	14.2	5.5	19.8	5.2	2.1
2001	Adelaide	9	23	12	16	322	159	481	102	62	0.5	0.7	14.0	6.9	20.9	4.4	2.7
2002	Adelaide	9	25	16	7	335	153	488	109	57	0.6	0.3	13.4	6.1	19.5	4.4	2.3
2003	Adelaide	9	23	19	11	276	163	439	96	49	0.8	0.5	12.0	7.1	19.1	4.2	2.1
2004	Adelaide	9	22	18	20	303	135	438	108	62	0.8	0.9	13.8	6.1	19.9	4.9	2.8
2005	Adelaide	9	25	17	3	317	237	554	106	73	0.7	0.1	12.7	9.5	22.2	4.2	2.9
2006	Adelaide	9	22	15	4	301	241	542	116	79	0.7	0.2	13.7	11.0	24.6	5.3	3.6
2007	Adelaide	9	23	7	8	348	231	579	132	94	0.3	0.3	15.1	10.0	25.2	5.7	4.1
2008	Adelaide	9	23	19	15	306	195	501	140	71	0.8	0.7	13.3	8.5	21.8	6.1	3.1
2009	Adelaide	9	22	8	12	289	265	554	125	86	0.4	0.5	13.1	12.0	25.2	5.7	3.9
2010	Adelaide	9	10	2	3	127	99	226	55	38	0.2	0.3	12.7	9.9	22.6	5.5	3.8
Career			321	192	125	3758	2336	6094	1441	830	0.6	0.4	11.7	7.3	19.0	4.5	2.6

External links

• Tyson Edwards's playing statistics from AFL Tables