A former Australian rules footballer who played for Essendon, Port Adelaide, the West Coast Eagles and Collingwood in the Australian Football League.
Cummings played primarily as a full forward and won the Coleman Medal in 1999 for being the leading goal scorer for the season. Although he was well renowned for his goal kicking abilities, Cummings occasionally played centre half back while playing in the reserve team at Essendon.
Cummings made his AFL debut in 1994 against Sydney, kicking eight goals and earning himself an AFL Rising Star nomination.
Cummings went on to kick 32 goals in his 10 matches for the year and was the leading goal kicker for Essendon.
At the end of the 1996 season, Essendon traded Cummings to the newly formed Port Adelaide in return for their #2 (Chris Heffernan) and #28 (Jason Johnson) draft selections. In all, Cummings played 40 games for Essendon, kicking 83 goals.
Cummings kicked 70 goals in his first season for Port Adelaide and finished third in the Coleman Medal behind Tony Modra (84) and Saverio Rocca (76). At the end of the year, he was traded to West Coast in return for Jarrad Schofield.
Working on his strength and fitness, Cummings’ first season for West Coast proved to be his career best. He kicked 95 goals for the 1999 season and won the Coleman Medal for leading goal kicker. This included four hauls of seven goals.
In 2000, Cummings started where he left off, kicking five goals in Round 1 before kicking 14 goals against Adelaide in Round 5. A fortnight later, Cummings kicked 10 goals in the ‘Western Derby’ against Fremantle and by Round 8, he was on top of the goalkickers list with 39 goals. However, quadriceps and groin injuries curtailed his season and he played only a single game in the second half of the season. His form tapered dramatically in 2001, kicking only 16 goals from nine games. At the end of the season Cummings was delisted by West Coast.