Charles Mark Cameron (born 5 July 1994) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Adelaide Football Club from 2014 to 2017. Cameron is a 3 time AFL premiership player with the Brisbane Lions. He is a 4 time leading goalkicker at the club and as at 2026 has the 4th most goals in its history. Cameron is a two time All-Australian and considered one of the greatest goalkickers in AFL finals history.
A fast moving small forward and goalsneak, Cameron is known for his showmanship, inciting players and fans with his goal celebrations. His celebratory goal song, Country Roads has become synonymous with his play and is often chanted by the crowd long after scoring a goal and has been known to fire up the crowd and team during key moments. This, along with his signature motorbike handlebar revving celebration have become iconic features of his interaction with the crowd.
Early life Cameron was born in Mount Isa, Queensland,Charlie Cameron reveals how Crows mentor Eddie Betts has shown him the way forward into an Aboriginal Australian family (Lardil and Waanyi).Cameron inspiring hometown students Cameron's family left Mount Isa moving 440 kilometres north to Gununa on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria when he was just 2 years old. He attended Mornington State School. Like many children there, where it is the most popular sport, he followed rugby league, Cameron was a Melbourne Storm supporter and aspired to play it professionally. Cameron was informally introduced to Australian rules football through AFL Cape York. In his final year of primary school, he played one of his first organised games when selected to represent the Crusaders team in the Queensland U14 country championships in Townsville. He moved to Brisbane at the age of 12 to board at Marist College Ashgrove.
As a schoolboy he played cricket, rugby league and rugby union at high levels.'Cheeky' Charlie's rapid rise He also continued his Australian rules development in high school, playing several games for Marist in 2008. His raw athletic attributes saw him recruited by the Brisbane Lions Academy during his last year at the school. However he quit the academy after six months to focus on playing school rugby union.Cameron happy to be in Brisbane Following graduation in late 2011, at the age of 17, Cameron moved with his family to Newman, Western Australia. His brother, Jarrod, is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles.
Pre-AFL career While in Newman, Cameron was talked into playing for the local football team, the Newman Saints. He began playing club football for the first time for the Saints in 2012 and impressed so much that, towards the end of the season, he was invited to play for the Swan Districts Football Club and played three Colts games. Entering his first pre-season ever with Swan Districts in 2013, he impressed the coaches so much that he earned a spot in the senior team for the first round of the 2013 WAFL season, and represented Western Australia at the 2013 AFL Under 18 Championships, which led to him being picked up by Adelaide with pick 7 in the 2014 rookie draft despite only having played a total of 30–40 games of Australian rules football.
AFL career Adelaide Cameron showed excellent form in the SANFL early in his first season, and was rewarded with a promotion to the senior list, replacing the injured Nathan van Berlo. He made his debut in round 9 against , kicking a goal and evading a tackle to set up another. Cameron went on to play seven AFL games in 2014 despite battling a groin injury, kicking nine goals including a bag of three against in round 12. At the end of the season he won the Crows' Mark Bickley Emerging Talent Award.
Cameron cemented his place in Adelaide's best 22 in 2015, playing 22 games for 29 goals and 17 goal assists. Highlights included a career-best four goals against the in round 17, and kicking the winning goal in Adelaide's elimination final victory over the . Cameron was nominated for the 2015 AFL Rising Star award for his performance against the in round 13, in which he kicked a goal and had three goal assists, five tackles and seven inside 50s.
In Round 9, 2017 Cameron starred against the , kicking four goals in the third quarter, including a run which involved two bounces, and a high pack mark. He had another impressive performance the next week in Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round, kicking three goals against Fremantle in a 100-point win. He was a member of the Crows' 2017 Grand Final losing team.
In October 2017, Cameron requested a trade home to Queensland with Brisbane being his preferred destination despite being contracted to Adelaide until the end of the 2018 season. He was officially traded to Brisbane during the trade period.
His long time small forward mentor at Adelaide, Eddie Betts in 2020 predicted he would become "the best small forward that ever played this game".
Brisbane Cameron helped the Brisbane Lions reach the finals from 2019 to 2022. In April 2022, Cameron was subjected to racial abuse. The incident was being investigated by AFL's integrity unit. In the semi-final of the 2022 AFL season against the Melbourne Demons, he marked the ball in the dying minutes of the game just inside the boundary line and converted the set shot to advance the Lions to the preliminary final.
Cameron kicked a goal in the 2023 Grand Final to put the Lions ahead of Collingwood with just minutes remaining, but ultimately Brisbane lost the game.
In July 2024, Cameron signed a three-year contract extension with the Lions. He went on to help the Lions win the 2024 AFL premiership, kicking a goal in a 60-point Grand Final victory over the Sydney Swans.
Statistics Updated to the end of round 22, 2026.
| 2014 || || 42 | 7 || 9 || 10 || 36 || 26 || 62 || 11 || 24 || 1.3 || 1.4 || 5.1 || 3.7 || 8.9 || 1.6 || 3.4 || 0 |- | 2015 || || 23 | 22 || 29 || 24 || 151 || 74 || 225 || 61 || 62 || 1.3 || 1.1 || 6.9 || 3.4 || 10.2 || 2.8 || 2.8 || 0 |- | 2016 || || 23 | 20 || 20 || 18 || 174 || 94 || 268 || 56 || 87 || 1.0 || 0.9 || 8.7 || 4.7 || 13.4 || 2.8 || 4.4 || 0 |- | 2017 || || 23 | 24 || 29 || 25 || 227 || 107 || 334 || 67 || 103 || 1.2 || 1.0 || 9.5 || 4.5 || 13.9 || 2.8 || 4.3 || 0 |- | 2018 || || 23 | 11 || 17 || 4 || 104 || 37 || 141 || 47 || 27 || 1.5 || 0.4 || 9.5 || 3.4 || 12.8 || 4.3 || 2.5 || 0 |- | 2019 || || 23 | 24 || 57 || 32 || 217 || 78 || 295 || 81 || 49 || 2.4 || 1.3 || 9.0 || 3.3 || 12.3 || 3.4 || 2.0 || 11 |- | 2020 || || 23 | 19 || 31 || 22 || 140 || 38 || 178 || 64 || 41 || 1.6 || 1.2 || 7.4 || 2.0 || 9.4 || 3.4 || 2.2 || 1 |- | 2021 || || 23 | 24 || 55 || 33 || 199 || 62 || 261 || 95 || 53 || 2.3 || 1.4 || 8.3 || 2.6 || 10.9 || 4.0 || 2.2 || 1 |- | 2022 || || 23 | 25 || 54 || 21 || 201 || 84 || 285 || 96 || 77 || 2.2 || 0.8 || 8.0 || 3.4 || 11.4 || 3.8 || 3.1 || 3 |- | 2023 || || 23 | 26 || 59 || 27 || 196 || 61 || 257 || 88 || 76 || 2.3 || 1.0 || 7.5 || 2.3 || 9.9 || 3.4 || 2.9 || 8 |- | scope=row bgcolor=F0E68C | 2024# || || 23 | 27 || 44 || 30 || 230 || 58 || 288 || 109 || 58 || 1.6 || 1.1 || 8.5 || 2.1 || 10.7 || 4.0 || 2.1 || 1 |- | scope=row bgcolor=F0E68C | 2025# || || 23 | 25 || 32 || 33 || 181 || 59 || 240 || 89 || 55 || 1.3 || 1.3 || 7.2 || 2.4 || 9.6 || 3.6 || 2.2 || 0 |- | 2026 || || 23 | 21 || 46 || 21 || 197 || 47 || 244 || 79 || 47 || 2.2 || 1.0 || 9.4 || 2.2 || 11.6 || 3.8 || 2.2 || 0 |- class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 | Career ! 275 !! 482 !! 300 !! 2253 !! 825 !! 3078 !! 943 !! 759 !! 1.8 !! 1.1 !! 8.2 !! 3.0 !! 11.2 !! 3.4 !! 2.8 !! 25
Notes
Honours and achievements Team 3× AFL premiership player: 2024, 2025, 2026 (Brisbane Lions) 2× McClelland Trophy: 2017 (Adelaide Crows) Minor Premiership, 2025 (Brisbane Lions) Club Championship
Individual All-Australian team: 2019 4× Brisbane Lions leading goalkicker: 2019 (57), 2020 (32), 2021 (55), 2022 (54) All Stars Representative Honours in Bushfire Relief Match: 2020 Marcus Ashcroft Medal: 2019 (round 21) AFL Rising Star nominee: 2015 (round 13) AFL Grand Final player: 2017, 2023, 2024, 2025
References
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