Andy Bennett

Who is Andy Bennett?

Andrew 'Andy' Bennett is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Hawthorn and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League during the 1980s.

Originally from South Adelaide, Bennett was a regular at Hawthorn in the 1980 VFL season but had the rest of his time at the club ruined by injury. After crossing to St Kilda in 1985 he managed to add a further 14 games to his tally and the following season became captain-coach of Tasmanian Football League club Sandy Bay and won the 1986 William Leitch Medal and guided his team to its first Grand Final appearance since 1978 but was unsuccessful.

Bennett stood down from coaching after a poor 1987 season but remained a player with Sandy Bay until retiring in 1991 whereby he took up a position the following year as a boundary-rider for ABC Television's TFL broadcasts before he returned to coaching in 1993, taking up the senior coaching position with North Hobart for two seasons, guiding them to a Preliminary Final in his first season followed by a disappointing 1994 season whereby he retired as coach at season's end.

Bennett, was in charge of the Tasmanian interstate team between 1995 and 1998 and steered them to wins over WAFL, SANFL and VFL representative teams. He contested the 1998 state election as a Labor candidate for Denison but was unsuccessful.