Australian Football

Craig Lambert began his senior career with VFA club Dandenong, but it was as a deceptively unkempt looking but highly creative midfielder for Richmond that he made his name. Tough and hard running, he used handball to great effect to open up the play, and was almost a lone shining light in the Tigers' struggling sides of the late 1980s and early '90s.

After 123 V/AFL games and 53 goals with Richmond between 1988 and 1993, Lambert transferred to Brisbane, where he promptly won the 1994 best and fairest award to go with the one won three years earlier with the Tigers. In 96 games from 1994 to 2000 Lambert was a superb contributor to the Brisbane cause, and was widely recognised as one of the most damaging on-ballers in the game. He was a key player when the Bears made the finals for the first time in 1996, achieving AFL All Australian selection the same season. The quality of his football in his last few seasons was undermined by niggling calf and groin injuries, but he still managed to put in some telling performances.

Author - John Devaney