Dean Solomon
Dean Solomon (born 9 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club and the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Solomon served as caretaker coach with the Gold Coast Football Club for the last 3 games of the 2017 season, following the departure of senior coach Rodney Eade on 7 August 2017. Early career. Solomon grew up in the small mining town of Broken Hill excelling in basketball, cricket and football though it is the latter in which he held the most promise. Playing for the North  Broken Hill Football Club, a team with which his family has a long history he received several honours as a junior, along with several junior premierships, however as a 16-year-old he was awarded "best junior" when playing for the league or A-grade team against many large, hard men who would often attempt to physically intimidate him. Solomon played his last game for North Broken Hill in 1996, unfortunately injuring his fingers and missing a grand final. Solomon then went on to play for the Bendigo Pioneers in the under 18 TAC Cup competition. He was selected in  the 1997 AFL Draft by Essendon with a 2nd round selection, number 20 overall. Playing career. Essendon Football Club. Solomon made his AFL debut in 1998 for Essendon and was part of their 2000 premiership team. On numerous occasions, however, Solomon has shown his lack of discipline to be detrimental to his game, one example being the 2005 clash with Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, where Solomon's concession of a 50-metre penalty was considered a turning point in the match, from which Adelaide became big victors. Fremantle Football club. On 13 October 2006 Solomon was traded to the Fremantle  Dockers, following a trade of draft picks No. 42 and No. 47, Fremantle also gained pick No. 52 from the Bombers. He links up with close friend, forward Chris Tarrant who was traded to the Dockers on the same day from Collingwood. In 2008, Solomon was reported for elbowing Cameron Ling to the head which resulted in broken cheekbones and eye socket. Solomon received an 8-week suspension, the most severe AFL tribunal penalty in 11 years. On 18 February 2010 Solomon announced his retirement from AFL football due to a painful degenerative knee injury. Coaching career. Fremantle Football club . Solomon was an assistant coach with Fremantle Football Club in the 2010 season under senior coach Mark Harvey. However after one season, Solomon departed the Fremantle Football Club at the end of the 2010 season on 4 August 2010. Gold Coast Suns Football Club. He joined the new Gold Coast Football Club as an assistant coach in the months before they entered the AFL for the 2011 season. During the 2017 season, Solomon was appointed caretaker senior coach of the Gold Coast Suns, with three matches left to go after Rodney Eade stepped down as Gold Coast Suns senior coach , during the 2017 season, when Eade was told he would not be receiving a contract extension with the Gold Coast Suns. The Gold Coast Suns, under Solomon went on to lose all three games for the rest of the 2017 season. Solomon was not retained as Gold Coast Suns senior coach at the conclusion of the 2017 season. The position instead went to Stuart Dew as Gold Coast Suns senior coach for the 2018 season. But Solomon, however remained with the Gold Coast Suns as assistant coach. After nine years of service as an assistant coach with the Gold Coast  Suns, Solomon was sacked at the end of the 2020 season. Upon his departure from the club, and on the advice of Adam Simpson, Solomon decided to take a 12 month sabbatical from the AFL in a bid to further develop himself with an eye on returning to coaching in 2022; during this sabbatical, he ran gym in Kingscliff. Playing statistics. ! | 1998 ! | 1999 ! | 2000 ! | 2001 ! | 2002 ! | 2003 ! | 2004 ! | 2005 ! | 2006 ! | 2007 ! | 2008 ! | 2009 !| Career ! 209 ! 78 ! 85 ! 1834 ! 1119 ! 2953 ! 815 ! 648 ! 0.4 ! 0.4 ! 8.8 ! 5.4 ! 14.1  ! 3.9 ! 3.1