| Bob McLean OBE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Allan Robert Charles McLean | ||
| Nickname | Bob | ||
| Born | 1 February 1914 Mile End, South Australia | ||
| Died | 9 November 1989(1989-11-09) (aged 75) Adelaide | ||
| Height | 194 cm (6 ft 4 in) | ||
| Weight | 99 kg (218 lb) | ||
| Position | Ruckman | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1934–1938 | Norwood | 74(57) | |
| 1939–1948 | Port Adelaide | 147 (414) | |
| 1941 | St Kilda | 3(3) | |
| Representative team honours | |||
| Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
| South Australia | 9 | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1948. | |||
| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
Allan Robert Charles McLeanOBE (1 February 1914 – 9 November 1989) was anAustralian rules footballer who played forPort Adelaide andNorwood in theSouth Australian National Football League (SANFL) andSt Kilda in theVictorian Football League (VFL). Affectionately referred to as "Big Bob" McLean, he later became a long-serving football administrator in South Australia. He was also a good cricketer, representingSouth Australia in theSheffield Shield and topped the Australian bowling and batting averages in 1947.
He was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the1983 New Year Honours for service to sport.[1]
As a player, McLean was mainly aruckman but was also handy around goals, kicking 471 of them during his 221-game SANFL career. He started out at Norwood before crossing to Port Adelaide and participating in their 1939 premiership win. On four occasions he topped Port Adelaide's goal-kicking – 1940, 1941, 1947 and 1948. His tally of 80 goals in 1947 was enough to win him the league'sleading goal-kicker award. He also representedSouth Australia in nine interstate matches over the course of his career.
While on military service in Melbourne, he made three appearances for St Kilda in the1941 VFL season.
McLean, a right-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler, appeared in 20first-class cricket matches for his state. He made 897 first-class runs at an average of 28.93 and took 65 wickets at 38.36.
Both of his two first-class hundreds were scored in a one-week period in theSheffield Shield, towards the end of December 1949. The first was an innings of 213 which he made opening the batting againstQueensland at theAdelaide Oval, dwarfing his team's next-highest score of 45.[2] Just two days after that match ended, South Australia metVictoria at theMelbourne Cricket Ground—and McLean, opening the batting once more, scored 135 and again outshone his teammates with the next-best effort being 31. Victoria's bowling lineup consisted ofTest cricketerDoug Ring as well as future Test playersJack Hill andJack Iverson.[3]
In his district career with Port Adelaide from 1939 to 1954, he scored over 5000 runs and took more than 500 wickets.[4]
His first name, Allan, is given on cricket scorecards instead of Bob.
He was appointed Club Secretary of Port Adelaide in 1949 and remained in the job until 1980. From 1983 to 1989 he was Club Chairman. McLean was also a SANFL League Director for 29 years and state selector for 17 years.
As a Port Adelaide administrator, Bob McLean earned a formidable reputation of making it exceptionally difficult for Victorian clubs to pry away the club's star players. A particularly famous incident in the 1970s involvedSt Kilda's attempt to obtainJohn Cahill. Bob McLean said that this was fair game but that he would "get the next flight to Melbourne and speak toCarl Ditterich (St Kilda's then captain)" if it were to happen. St Kilda reportedly cancelled their visit.
In 2007, he was inducted into theAustralian Football Hall of Fame. Five years earlier he had been one of the inaugural inductees in theSouth Australian Football Hall of Fame.
The A. R. McLean Medal is awarded to thebest-and-fairest winner for thePort Adelaide Football Club side in the SANFL each year.
His sonIan also played first-class cricket for South Australia as a batsman, playing 25 matches and scoring two centuries – against Western Australia (103 not out) and Tasmania (111).
