{"id":312289,"date":"2023-06-28T07:45:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T07:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=312289"},"modified":"2023-06-28T19:00:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T19:00:14","slug":"footy-great-dead-after-collapsing-while-walking-his-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=312289","title":{"rendered":"Footy great dead after collapsing while walking his dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Fitzroy champion and renowned AFL<\/a> recruiter Matthew Rendell has died in hospital after suffering a heart attack on Sunday. He was 64.<\/p>\n

Rendell collapsed while walking his dog on Sunday, and had been on life support since arriving at the Victorian Heart Hospital in Clayton via ambulance.<\/p>\n

An exceptional footballer, Rendell first debut as a teenager for West Torrens in the SANFL in 1977 before playing 164 games in the VFL\/AFL with Fitzroy and a season with the Brisbane Bears.<\/p>\n

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\"Fitzroy<\/p>\n

At Fitzroy, he received two best and fairest honours and was a two-time All-Australian. He also served as the club's captain from 1985-1987.<\/p>\n

Rendell then transitioned into club administration and recruiting, working as an assistant coach at St Kilda and an admired recruiter at Adelaide and Collingwood.<\/p>\n

More recently, Rendell had forged a career in the media with The Age and SEN.<\/p>\n

The AFL released a statement on behalf of Rendell's wife Leonie on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

"It is with great sadness that I am releasing this statement in regards to the condition of Matthew Rendell," the statement read.<\/p>\n

"Matthew passed away this afternoon, after suffering a cardiac arrest Sunday morning. He did not regain consciousness.<\/p>\n

"We greatly appreciate the efforts of the first responders and the staff at the Victorian Heart Hospital.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyonNine\/status\/1673937883844214785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"The Rendell family would like to express gratitude towards everyone who has been supportive at this time."<\/p>\n

AFL CEO-elect Andrew Dillon led the tributes for Rendell from the football community.<\/p>\n

"Matt Rendell was a top-flight footballer from the moment of his debut for the Eagles, regular state representative for SA and imposing ruckman with Fitzroy and the Bears. As a dual All Australian and dual best and fairest winner, he led with distinction and forged friendships across the game with his gregarious nature, both as a player and then later in his career working in the game," he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

"He will be greatly missed by so many across the industry and we offer our sincere condolences to Leonie, Daniel and James, and his many friends and colleagues around the game."<\/p>\n

Rendell's brother Tim told The Age that Matthew had been found by a passer-by following a cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

"Someone noticed him and called an ambulance, but no one knows how long he was lying there," he said on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

He also described his brother as a "pretty fit" person who remained active and walked regularly.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rendell is survived by brothers Tim and Stephen, sisters Deb, Melinda and Vanessa, wife Leonie and sons Daniel and James.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Fitzroy champion and renowned AFL recruiter Matthew Rendell has died in hospital after suffering a heart attack on Sunday. He was 64. Rendell collapsed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":312291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=312289"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312292,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312289\/revisions\/312292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/312291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=312289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=312289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=312289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}