The top 10 boomerang players of the AFL era

Here, there, and back again, these are the best names that played for the same club over two stints👇

STAFF WRITERS | October 5, 2022 - 12:06pm

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Even though their primary purpose is that of a weapon, when quizzing the average layman about boomerangs, most would recognise these symbols of cultural endurance for their colloquial ability to return to their point of origin.

Apart from playing AFL football, each of the 10 names on this list have at least one thing in common – they all came back to their original clubs after spending time with another.

Although names like David Cloke and Warwick Capper completed their careers back at their first clubs and within the bounds of the AFL era, we have ruled them ineligible due to their peaks arising prior to 1990.

Like Elvis' love letters in the early sixties, these are the 10 best players that were returned to their senders.

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2.
Eddie Betts

Carlton/Adelaide/Carlton

In the penultimate position on this list we have arguably the greatest small forward of all time, Eddie Betts.

Following his adolescence jumping between Port Lincoln and Kalgoorlie, Betts landed in Melbourne as a 15-year-old.

Despite solid performances for the Calder Cannons and Vic Metro, Betts fell through to the pre-season draft, with Carlton snaffling the goal sneak at pick three.

Betts' first two seasons in a Blues guernsey saw him kick just shy of a goal in each of his 40 appearances. The livewire also won Carlton's best first year player award in 2005 and his first of four Goal of the Year awards in 2006, with his mercurial snap against the old enemy, Collingwood.

The small forward's star continued to rise over the next handful of seasons, with his yearly tallies heightening to a peak of 50 in 2011.

Betts entered the 2013 season as a looming free-agent, and despite the Blues playing finals, the then 26-year-old took Adelaide's multi-million dollar offer and ran.

It still pains Carlton fans to hear, but statistically and optically, Eddie Betts' peak came as a Crow.

His goals per game average skyrocketed from 1.57 to 2.34 once red and yellow were added to his guernsey. A further three Goal of the Year titles were obtained, as were four leading goalkicker titles and all three of his All-Australian selections.