Australian Football

Spiro Kourkoumelis was an abundantly talented midfielder who was singularly unfortunate in that he arrived at Carlton at a time when the club was blessed with a large umber of players of the same type, all boasting considerably more experience. Moreover, it has to said that if there was one noticeable deficiency in Kourkoumelis’ game it was that he lacked pace, something that the likes of Barry, Armstrong, Wayne Johnston, David Glascott, Jim Buckley and others had in abundance.

For much of his six season stint with Carlton therefore Kourkoumelis was in and out of the senior side, averaging just over 11 games a year. His best season was probably 1983 when he ran fifth in the Blues’ best and fairest count and played in their night premiership-winning side. He also won a reserves best and fairest award in 1982 and played in the 1986 reserves grand final-winning team.

After 67 VFL games and 56 goals for Carlton Kourkoumelis moved to St Kilda where he proved a reasonably handy acquisition, adding a final 35 games and 15 goals to his respective career tallies between 1987 and 1990. He rounded off his senior playing career with VFA side Coburg.

Author - John Devaney