Australian Football

Matthew Liptak was a lively midfielder with excellent goal sense, although he was far from greedy, and probably created as many goals as he scored. He commenced his senior league career in 1990 with Glenelg and was a member of the Bays’ losing grand final team that year. He was then picked up by the newly formed Adelaide Football Club and made his AFL debut in 1991. Impressive as he was from the outset it would probably be fair to say that he improved over time with his form peaking in 1996 when he won the Crows best and fairest award and was chosen to represent South Australia. After that, however, the wheels fell off quite spectacularly as he suffered a succession of injuries which kept him out of the Crows’ 1997 and 1998 grand final-winning teams.

When he left the club in 1999 he had played 116 AFL games and kicked 128 goals. He carried on playing with Glenelg for a couple more seasons, by which time he had made 51 SANFL appearances and posted 57 goals for the club.

Away from football Matthew Liptak qualified as a medical doctor.

Author - John Devaney