Peter Bell (footballer, born 1976)

Bell was born in Jeju Island, South Korea, the son of a Korean mother, Kyung Ae and a Native American father of Navajo descent. In 1979, he was adopted by an Australian couple who were in South Korea as Christian missionaries. Bell spent his formative years in Kojonup, Western Australia, and began playing junior football at the age of 10 with Kojonup Cougars Junior Football Club. As well as playing, he was a regular scoreboard attendant and also boundary umpired. At the age of 13, he broke his leg which had complications and required additional resetting. He was educated at Aquinas College, Perth, where he was a boarder. At Aquinas, he continued playing junior football from age 15 where he excelled, earning selection in the WA junior representative team. In 1994, he joined the South Fremantle Football Club and had an immediate impact being named best and fairest. Despite being considered short by AFL standards at the time he was shortly after selected in the inaugural Fremantle Dockers AFL club list drawn from the local clubs. Bell became one of the first two players signed by the Fremantle Dockers, which made its debut in the Australian Football League the following year. ==AFL career==

Fremantle (1995) Despite kicking two goals with his first two kicks in AFL football, Bell failed to make an impression on Dockers' coach Gerard Neesham, who regarded him as too slow a runner to be a successful AFL player. he remained captain for five seasons until the end of the 2006 season. At Subiaco Oval, enthusiastic supporters rang a bell (a play on his surname) whenever Bell got a possession. Bell has the exact bell which was rung so enthusiastically on his sideboard in his current home. He was president of the AFL Players Association from 2003 until the beginning of 2007. Bell announced his immediate retirement on 7 July 2008, having played his last game in the club's Round 14 loss to Essendon. He played 286 games with North Melbourne and Fremantle. Playing statistics ==Post-player career==

Bell was educated at the University of Western Australia, where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws. In 2013, Bell joined radio broadcaster 6PR as host of the afternoon slot, alongside his match-day special comments for AFL games on the station. In 2016, he moved to ABC Radio Perth to host the weekday breakfast program. He also did some AFL coverage for the Seven Network. In September 2018, Bell was appointed general manager of the Fremantle Football Club, and he resigned from his radio and television roles. ==References==