Strauchanie
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Bryan Strauchan | |||
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![]() Peter Helliar as Bryan Strauchan in 2008 | |||
Personal information | |||
Full name | Bryan Keith Strauchan | ||
Date of birth | 1984 (age 39–40) | ||
Place of birth |
Victoria | ||
Original team(s) | Horsham Reserves | ||
Draft | Final pick, 2004 National Draft | ||
Playing career1 | |||
Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
2004–2009 | Collingwood | 0 (0) | |
Representative team honours | |||
Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
2007–present | Victoria (Legends Game) | 4 (8) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2009. 2 State and international statistics correct as of 2008. | |||
Career highlights | |||
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Bryan Keith Strauchan (pronounced "Strawn"), better known as "Strauchanie" (pronounced "Strawny"), is a fictional Australian rules football player played by Peter Helliar, who first appeared during short sketches on Before the Game.
Strauchanie is represented as a talentless, overweight bogan, oblivious to his own lack of ability, who occupied a position on the Collingwood Football Club's playing list until he announced his retirement in early April 2009 on Triple M.
Through his regular segment on Before the Game, Strauchanie became a popular character for his combination of country football stereotypes and jokes about contemporary issues in the AFL. Strauchan has since made celebrity appearances, often performing in charity sports events.
Character
Bryan Strauchan was born in 1984 to Roy and Soy Bean Strauchan in the country town of Horsham, Victoria. He is of Asian descent through his maternal parentage, although his appearance shows no physical Asian traits. He is renowned for his illeism (i.e., referring to himself in the third person).
He played his formative years of football in Horsham, reaching no higher than the reserves; nevertheless, he was supposedly selected by the
Strauchan has been involved in a relationship with real-life boundary rider Christi Malthouse, although incidences[spelling?] of infidelity are frequent. He has claimed that the reason he was not selected for play is that selectors are biased against Asians, but he was selected as captain in the Asian Team of the Century.
He was man of the match in the 2009 E.J. Whitten Legends Game after kicking three goals. Late in the match, however, Strauchan injured his ankle after a tackle, putting the rest of his career in doubt. Although it appeared to be a joke at first, Strauchan did actually injure his ankle severely.
Bryan Strauchan suffered a shocking lower-leg injury during the 2012 E.J. Whitten Legends Game that has possibly ended his football-playing days for good.
In 2012, in a move by the fans, Strauchanie was voted President of the Melbourne Renegades.[1][2]
For the role, Helliar dons a blonde
Media and celebrity appearances
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Straunie.jpg/200px-Straunie.jpg)
Strauchan was a recurring character on the show Before the Game, which features regular 2- to 5-minute segments about the goings-on in Strauchan's life. Collingwood Football Club personalities, including coach Mick Malthouse, president Eddie McGuire and various senior players, have appeared and co-operated with sketches which pretend to place Strauchan inside the real-life workings of the club.
Additionally, Bryan Strauchan has made celebrity appearances on several occasions in both the media and in sports. These include:
- Hosting a comedy segment at the 2006 Brownlow Medal count.
- Appearing in the Australian Football League's membership advertisements.
- Participating in the 2007 through 2011 EJ Whitten Legends Gamesfor Victoria, as co-captain in 2008 (wearing his number 59 guernsey).
- Participating in the Twenty20 Celebrity Challenge, a charity cricket match played for the Shane Warne Foundation.
- Participating in the 2008 Australian Grand Prix celebrity race.
- Appearing at Parade College for a fundraiser on 5 November 2009.
- Appearing at the motor neuron disease.[3]
- Doing crunches in 2020 to help support Redkite, a charity that supports young cancer patients up to the ages of 18.[4]
- During an episode of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2023, in which Helliar was a contestant.
Career highlights
- Final pick, 2004 National Draft
- Captain of All-Asian Team of the Century
- E. J. Whitten Legends Game 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012[5]
- Co-captain of Victoria (EJ Whitten Legends Game) (2008)
- Man of the Match (EJ Whitten Legends Game) (2009)
Merchandise
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Strauchanie_dvd.gif)
Bryan Strauchan wrote an autobiography Bryan Strauchan – my story: the rise and rise of a genuine superstar of Australian sport. In it, Strauchan talks about his Horsham days, playing for Collingwood, and being Chinese. Strauchan, released the autobiography in front of a packed media conference at
A DVD featuring all of Strauchan's clips was released in 2006. The DVD is titled as Strauchanie – Pure B.S., which is a play on words, as the "B.S." in the title can refer both to Strauchan's initials and also the word "bullshit". The video has since been uploaded to YouTube in full.[6]
References
- ^ Strauchanie's first day as Melbourne Renegades 'President', archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 17 September 2021
- ^ Carbone, Suzanne (2 December 2012). "Gripping job to write for Doyle". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- ^ Bryan 'Strauchanie' Strauchan Official Page, retrieved 17 September 2021
- ^ Strauchanie crunches 4 kids with cancer, archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 17 September 2021
- ^ "Strauchanie a legend? Yep, it's official". The Age. Melbourne. 6 June 2007.
- ^ Strauchanie - Pure B.S., archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 17 September 2021
Further reading
- Helliar, Peter and Paul Calleja. Bryan Strauchan: My story: The rise and rise of a genuine superstar of Australian sport. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2007. ISBN 978-1-74175-343-1
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)