Scott Camporeale Australian rules football player
Scott Camporeale (born 11 August 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton and Essendon Football Clubs in the Australian Football League.Originally from South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club Woodville-West Torrens Eagles, Camporeale was drafted by Carlton with draft pick number 15 in the 1994 AFL Draft. Camporeale quickly established himself as a quality running midfielder for Carlton and his speed was an important part of Carlton's 1995 premiership winning side.In 2000, Camporeale won Carlton's best and fairest award, the Robert Reynolds Trophy and gained All-Australian selection. As the team slid down the ladder, so did Camporeale's performances, to an extent. Following the loss of quality inside players at Carlton such as Brett Ratten, Craig Bradley and Darren Hulme, Camporeale's run and effectiveness was not as damaging and he had a poor year in 2005 when Carlton won the wooden spoon and was not good enough to demand the wage a player of his reputation wanted. At the end of the 2005 season, Camporeale quit Carlton, following his desire for a three-year contract, when Carlton would only offer a two-year contract. Carlton tried to make it difficult for him to leave, not releasing him to train with Essendon, his desired club, until as late as they could. Camporeale nominated for the 2006 Pre-season Draft, where, in a case of mind games, then Collingwood Football Club coach Mick Malthouse said he would ruin Essendon's plans of snapping-up Camporeale. However this was not the case and Essendon drafted Camporeale as expected with draft pick number four in the pre-season draft. Camporeale debuted with Essendon in Round One, 2006. His career came to an end when he suffered a right knee injury in Round 21 2007. It occurred when he changed direction to tackle an opponent resulting with his knee bending and twisting the wrong way. He had successful ACL surgery on the knee but played just 19 games for the Bombers in two seasons (the same number of seasons as what Carlton had offered him at the end of 2005) before retiring as a player.