text: ken hall ( footballer ) ken hall ( born 13 november 1980 ) is a former australian rules football player from tasmania . he played junior football in his home state and spent two years in the seniors at north hobart . hall then moved to victoria in 2001 to play for essendon football club 's reserves side in the victorian football league ( vfl ) . he played for the reserves for a year before being drafted onto essendon 's rookie list for the 2002 season . hall was promoted to the senior list midway through 2002 and subsequently made his australian football league ( afl ) debut , although he did not record a statistic in what was to be his only afl match . he was retained on the bombers ' rookie list for 2003 and was again elevated to the senior list during the season . although he was often named as an emergency after his promotion , hall was unable to break into the senior team and essendon delisted him at the end of 2003 , ending his afl career . after being delisted hall played with the tasmanian devils in the vfl for four seasons , before rejoining his old side , tasmanian football league ( tfl ) team north hobart , in 2008 . he won two best and fairest awards and captained the club in his time with north hobart before retiring at the conclusion of the 2011 season . early career a tasmanian native , hall played junior football for north hobart football club 's under - 18 side in the tasmanian football league ( tfl ) , as well as representing his under - 18 state side , the tassie mariners , in the tac cup . he broke his wrist while playing for north hobart 's under - 18s in 1997 and broke the same wrist again in april 1998 , this time while playing for the mariners . hall recovered from the injury by august and was back playing for the mariners . in 1999 , hall was no longer eligible in the under - 18s and so became a regular fixture in north hobart 's senior side . he played as a defender , occasionally being required to shut down the opposition 's star players , and was regularly named as one of the demons ' better players . hall started the 2000 season playing as a centre half - forward for the demons , despite his relatively small size . in the first game of the year he kicked a match winning goal as north hobart defeated clarence by 11 points . by may , hall was again playing on the half - back line . his form in defence was described as " reliable " and " solid " in the middle of the season by the mercury . the young demons side unexpectedly reached the finals and caused an upset in the semi final against the heavily favoured burnie dockers ; hall was named as the demons ' " best player without question " by the mercury . at the conclusion of the season , hall was named as back pocket in the tasmanian side and as the north hobart played with the most potential . with the breakup of the tfl at the end of the 2000 season , many of tasmania 's best young footballers , including hall , moved interstate to try and break into the australian football league ( afl ) and other quality leagues . hall began training with afl side essendon in december 2000 in the hope of being drafted . the bombers lost draft picks that year due to salary cap violations and hall went undrafted , but was instead placed on the bombers ' supplementary list , playing with essendon 's reserves side in the victorian football league ( vfl ) . afl career after impressing with the reserves in 2001 , hall was drafted by essendon with the 46th selection in the 2002 afl rookie draft , thereby placing him on the bombers ' rookie list . speaking to the mercury , hall described the opportunity as exciting said that it has always been his dream to play in the afl . in the lead - up to the 2002 season hall played in all three of essendon 's pre - season matches , of which the bombers lost every game . rookie listed players must be promoted to the senior list before they play a senior afl match , so hall began the 2002 season playing in the vfl for essendon 's reserves team . when dean solomon suffered a season - ending knee injury in late march , hall was one of three players in contention to be promoted to the senior list in place of solomon . after approximately one month of assessment hall was deemed the most impressive of essendon 's three rookies and was elevated to the senior list . in early june , hall played particularly well in defence for the reserves against the murray kangaroos , and was subsequently in consideration to play for essendon 's senior team . essendon had been plagued by injury throughout 2002 and this , coupled with hall 's good form in the vfl , resulted in him making his afl debut in round 12 against hawthorn . after a poor performance in his debut match , in which he did not record a statistic and spent most of the match on the bench , hall was dropped backed to the vfl side the following round . despite showing good form in the vfl for the remainder of 2002 , hall was unable to break back into the senior bombers line - up . although hall failed to have an impact at afl level , he played well at vfl level and was third in the reserves ' best and fairest award . hall was retained on the bombers ' rookie list for 2003 . although essendon had another poor pre - season , losing four of the five matches they played , hall played in each of the games . he was described as " perform [ ing ] well " in the age newspaper , and even kicked a goal in the first match . after spending the majority of his career prior to 2003 as a defender , hall was trialled as a midfielder for the 2003 season , a move which reaped immediate results as he became a " goalscoring weapon " for the bendigo bombers — essendon 's new vfl - affiliate side — as well as becoming well known for his penetrating kicking ability . in early august , hall kicked four goals in a close win against the northern in the vfl , and three days later , essendon coach kevin sheedy declared that hall and two others were in contention to be promoted to the senior list , even though he had missed out on being elevated two weeks prior . sheedy proceeded to promote hall , in place of the injured joel reynolds , in order to " see if [ hall ] will be a viable option come finals time " . he was immediately named in essendon 's 25 - man squad to play against the western bulldogs , but failed to make the starting 22 . despite not playing a senior match for the entirety of the regular season , there was media speculation that hall may be selected for essendon 's elimination final against fremantle , due to sheedy stating that he had " little choice " but to select a youthful team for the match and that " it wouldn 't worry [ him ] " to choose an inexperienced player . however , sheedy elected not to play hall in the match , instead selecting him as an emergency . essendon won the match and moved on to the semi final , where hall was again an emergency . essendon lost the semi final and was eliminated from the finals series , ending the bombers ' season . although he regularly pushed for selection in 2003 and finished equal second in bendigo 's best and fairest count , hall was delisted at season 's end . post - afl career after being delisted by the bombers , hall was pursued by multiple clubs ; he had offers from vfl sides coburg , the tasmanian devils , williamstown and bendigo , as well as south australian national football league ( sanfl ) club west adelaide , before deciding to sign with devils because he wanted to come home to family and friends . hall started the 2004 season playing as a forward and , despite moving into the midfield by mid - season , he was still a regular goalkicker . in june he was named in the vfl representative squad to play against the west australian football league , but he missed out on the match due to a hip flexor injury that sidelined him for a month . hall finished the home and away season in fifth place in the the mercury 's tasmanian devils player of the year award and in equal third place in the devils ' best and fairest . in 2005 hall was among the best on the ground in an interstate match between the vfl and the sanfl , finished in third in the devils ' best and fairest count , and was runner up in the mercury 's tasmanian devils player of the year award . the 2006 season saw hall named best on ground in his 100th vfl match , a 24 - point win over frankston . he was again runner up in the mercury 's tasmanian devils player of the year award and also finished as runner up in the team 's best and fairest count . in 2007 journalist matt burgan , writing for the afl website , named hall in his best 22 players currently from tasmania , with hall and cameron thurley the only two players who were not listed with an afl club at the time of selection . hall was named in the devils ' leadership group at the beginning of the 2007 season . he represented tasmania in an interstate match against queensland and was awarded the lefroy medal as best on ground for the tasmanians . hall finished the year winning his first tasmanian devils player of the year award and coming third in the best and fairest . after 134 matches and 109 goals in the vfl , hall left the devils at the end of the 2007 season , citing work and family reasons — his wife lauren was expecting their first child in december 2007 . he proceeded to rejoin north hobart football club in the tfl for 2008 . in his first year with the club hall won the george miller medal , awarded to north hobart 's best and fairest player for the season . in 2009 , he was described as north hobart 's " star player " , represented the tfl in a match against the , and was his team 's only representative in the top 10 of the tassie medal , awarded to the league 's best and fairest player . by 2010 , hall was the captain of north hobart , and was one of only four players in the tfl to have senior afl experience . hall had another good season in 2010 ; he won his second george miller medal , and was described by his coach as one of the league 's five best players and the " best tackler in the competition " . despite carrying a nagging ankle injury , hall started the 2011 season well , with the mercury 's brett stubbs writing that he was arguably the second best player in the league . he missed five weeks during the middle of the season and , although he was named best on ground in his comeback match , hall said that another injury would probably be the end of his career . he played out the reason of the season and finished in ninth place in the state league player of the year award , was named on the half - back flank in the tfl team of the year , and finished in the top 20 in the tassie medal count . hall retired from football at the end of the 2011 season ; his coach at north hobart described hall as irreplaceable . he came out of retirement in 2013 to spend one season playing for st virgil 's old scholars in the old scholars football association where he was also an assistant coach . hall finished second in the league best and fairest in his solitary season for the club .