From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ken Judge (born January 15, 1958) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach.

He was recruited from East Fremantle Football Club to Hawthorn and made an immediate impact in his VFL debut in 1983, being part of a premiership side in his first season and winning the Hawks' Best First Year Player award. Judge also played in the Grand Final sides of 1984 and 1985 but after struggling for selection with the Hawks in 1986, he moved to the Brisbane Bears, where he played without making much impact in 1987 and 1988.

Judge was the coach for Hawthorn from 1996-1999, before moving home to coach the West Coast Eagles for the 2000 and 2001 AFL seasons. He was unsuccessful during his time there and was replaced by John Worsfold.

Some commentators have stated that in fairness to Judge, West Coast was in decline at the time he took over, and needed to go through a rebuilding phase. The general wisdom in the AFL is that due to the aging of players and the AFL draft, even successful clubs will have a few lean years as they go through a rebuilding phase. Daniel Kerr was drafted to the Eagles straight out of high school during Judge's time as coach.

Simon Katich, an elite Australian cricketer, is a life-long supporter of the Richmond Football Club that play in the elite AFL. In mid 2001, while still a registered player for the Western Australia cricket team, albeit in the Australian cricket off-season, Katich was invited to give the pre-game address to the Richmond players when they visited Western Australia to play the West Coast Eagles. This became a mild source of controversy in Western Australia as people discovered that one of its well-known cricketers was a major fan of a football club from the eastern states.

At a midweek press conference prior to the weekend when the game was fixtured, Ken Judge, then the coach of the West Coast Eagles, was asked what he thought of Katich addressing the players from the Richmond Tigers. Judge, who looked visibly nervous, remarked "I don't think Simon is going to give away any of our secrets - He's a good West Australian boy" followed by some nervous laughter.

The record shows that Richmond won the game in an upset and Judge was sacked as coach at the end of the season. Furthermore, prior to the next Australian cricket season, Katich joined the New South Wales Blues, having resigned from the Western Australian cricket team. Many fans felt that Katich had turned his back on his home state and had shafted Judge.

This Australian rules football biography is a stub. You can help WikiProject AFL by expanding it.