{"id":615096,"date":"2026-04-18T13:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T13:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615096\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T13:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T13:13:10","slug":"phelan-medallist-pocket-profile-chris-odwyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615096\/","title":{"rendered":"Phelan Medallist Pocket Profile &#8211; Chris O&#8217;Dwyer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\" align=\"center\">Football Background<\/p>\n<p>Full Name: Chris O&#8217;Dwyer\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nickname: ChrisO\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Playing Position\/s: Centre\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Playing Status: Retired\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Phelan Medal Receipt Year\/s: 1994\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Years playing in Sydney: 8\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sydney Senior Club\/s: East Sydney<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Sydney Junior Club\/s: NA<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\" align=\"center\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\" align=\"center\">Pocket Profile Questions<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0Toughest Opponent in Sydney?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0Mark Brady\/North Shore &#8211; unbelievable defensive midfielder.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">What did winning a Phelan Medal\/s mean to you?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0Great Individual Honour which I would have swapped gladly for a Premiership!<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">What impact did winning a Phelan Medal have on your playing career?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">Winning the Phelan just meant from 95 on I got tagged a lot more from the oppositions. I came into the Sydney Football League from the Swans &amp; took great pride in my performance because I had the view that if I was a listed AFL player I should dominate that level of Footy. I had great a great time at the &#8216;Dogs&#8217; &amp; the friendships I gained were far more important than the footballing successes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">What is your most memorable moment from your career in Sydney?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">Coaching the Prems to their 1st Finals appearance in decades in 97&#8242; was memorable but still haunts me as it was an opportunity we let slip not making the Grand Final. Also, the amount I votes I gained in winning the Phelan (28) &amp; then coming runner up to Joey McCormack in another season with 21.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">Did you have any pre-game superstitions or routines?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0Lots &#8211; I use to warm up for a long time &amp; get very zoned in before I played with the same routine every game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">What is the best advice you received as a player and from who?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">Col Kinnear (Swans Coach) &#8211; &#8216;don&#8217;t flirt with it&#8217; referencing being to smart with the footy instead of doing the predictable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">What would be one piece of advice for young players coming into AFL Sydney?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0If you want to be the best &#8211; work the hardest. Footballers don&#8217;t get lucky, they earn every kick, handball, accolade, team success.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">If retired, what do you miss most about footy?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:0cm;\">I am still involved 7 days a week with footy as I have 4 young men who are 14\/16\/19\/21 &amp; all playing! I love the game &amp; are so proud of how far Sydney Football has come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Football Background Full Name: Chris O&#8217;Dwyer\u00a0 Nickname: ChrisO\u00a0 Playing Position\/s: Centre\u00a0 Playing Status: Retired\u00a0 Phelan Medal Receipt Year\/s:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-615096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}