| Gordon Coventry | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Coventry in 1934 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Gordon Richard James Coventry | ||
| Nickname | Nuts | ||
| Born | (1901-09-25)25 September 1901 Diamond Creek, Victoria | ||
| Died | 7 November 1968(1968-11-07) (aged 67) Diamond Creek, Victoria | ||
| Original team | Diamond Creek | ||
| Height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) | ||
| Weight | 85 kg (187 lb) | ||
| Position | Full forward | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1920–1937 | Collingwood | 306 (1299) | |
| Representative team honours | |||
| Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
| Victoria | 25 (100) | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1937. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
Club
Honours
| |||
| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
Gordon Richard James Coventry (25 September 1901 – 7 November 1968) was anAustralian rules footballer who played forCollingwood Football Club in theVictorian Football League (VFL).
Afforded 'Legend' status in theAustralian Football Hall of Fame, Coventry was the first player in VFL history to achieve several significant milestones, including playing 300 career games, kicking 100 goals in a season, winning the leading goalkicker award in five consecutive years, and kicking 1000 career goals. Coventry's league total of 1299 career goals served as a competition record for over 60 seasons.
The eighth of the ten children of Henry Coventry (1862–1948)[1] and Jane Henrietta Coventry (1863–1940), née Spencer,[2] Gordon Richard James Coventry—known as "Nuts" to his family (said, by some, due to his having a disproportionately large head as a child)[3]—was born on 25 September 1901 inDiamond Creek, Victoria.[4]
Coventry and his siblings attended the Nillumbik State School (No.1003) atDiamond Creek.[5] While still at school, he began working on his father's fruit orchard.[6]
Coventry played his early football forDiamond Creek Football Club in the new Heidelberg District Football League, a competition which began afterWorld War I, and had quickly established himself as a champion centre half-forward. In 1920, he was invited to train atCollingwood. The three significant officials involved with that invitation, who were anticipating Collingwood's need to find a suitable replacement for the at-the-time injuredDick Lee, who was nearing the end of his career,[7] were Ernest William Copeland (1868–1947),[8] John James "Jack" Joyce (1860–1945),[9] and John James "Jack" Peppard (1878–1940).[10] Although Lee had played in Collingwood's first eight matches in the 1920 season,[11] he had only scored 17 goals; and, also, due to an injury sustained in the round 9 match againstSouth Melbourne, he missed the next seven matches, returning in the season's last home-and-away match in round 18—in the interim, Collingwood tried various permutations of forward lines to cover for the loss of Lee, centred on the selection ofErn Utting (five matches),Tom Wraith (one match), andTom Drummond (one match) at full-forward over that time.
Coventry played his first senior game forCollingwood at the age of 18 againstSt Kilda in round 15,1920. He played on the half-forward flank, kicked one goal, and although "not particularly impressive … [he] showed that he can kick well".[12] As one of Collingwood's four inexperienced players given a run that day (the others wereLes Lobb,Len Ludbrooke, andRoy Outram), Gordon played his second match—again on the half-forward flank—in what was also Lee's return match, the last home-and-away round of the season against South Melbourne.
Then, just 18, and in his third match, Gordon played at centre half-forward in the Collingwood team (with Lee at full-forward) that beatFitzroy 4.17 (41) to 3.5 (23), at a muddy, rain-soddenMCG, in the1920 semi-final . And then, once more at centre half-forward (withHarry Curtis replacing the injured Lee at full-forward), in the Collingwood team that beatCarlton 12.11 (83) to 8.11 (59) in the1920 preliminary final on 25 September 1920, his nineteenth birthday. Coventry reprised his role at centre half-forward in the team that lost to Richmond 7.10 (52) to 5.5 (35) in the1920 grand final, kicking 3 goals in the defeat.
In1921, his second VFL season, Coventry was selected in a representative VFL side to play against a combinedBendigo team on 6 August 1921, but did not play due toinfluenza.[13][14]
He was unable to play in the last home-and-away rounds of the 1921 season due to his illness, although he was able to resume training.
Unexpectedly, he was selected as a last minute replacement forMal Seddon,[15] who had declared himself unfit to play on the morning of the match, as a consequence of the injury to his thigh that he had sustained at the preceding Tuesday's training session in a collision withPercy Rowe.[16] Coventry played at centre half-forward (kicking 3 goals) in the team that lost to Carlton 9.11 (65) to 7.10 (52) in the1921 semi-final.
Coventry played the entire 1922 season on one half-forward flank, scoring 42 goals, with his brother,Syd, playing on the other.
In 1923, with Lee having retired at the end of the 1922 season, Coventry (by this stage a 34-game veteran) moved to full-forward and was the club's leading goal-kicker that season with 36 goals. He soon became one of the league's most prolific and consistent goal-kickers. He wasCollingwood's leading goal-kicker for 16 consecutive years, and theleague's leading goal-kicker on six occasions (five of which were in consecutive years, 1927–1931). He kicked Collingwood's only two goals in the lowest-scores-ever grand final of1927, with Collingwood, in atrocious conditions, defeatingRichmond 2.13 (25) to 1.7 (13). He was the first player to kick 100 goals in a VFL season (which he did in 1929, 1930, 1933, and 1934), kicked a total of 1299 goals in VFL football, and 100 goals in VFL representative teams. Coventry was made a life member of the Collingwood Football Club in 1932,[17] and was also Collingwood'sbest and fairest player in 1933.
Coventry missed Collingwood's1936 VFL grand final victory due to disqualification. It was the only time he had been reported in his entire VFL career. Coventry was found guilty of strikingRichmond defenderJoe Murdoch in the torrid match against Richmond in round 13, 1936.[18] Coventry had a crop of painfulboils on his neck, and when Murdoch repeatedly struck his neck, Coventry retaliated.[19]
Coventry was suspended for eight matches, and Murdoch for four.[20] An appeal by Coventry against the severity of the penalty was unsuccessful.[21] At the time, Coventry announced that he was retiring from VFL football.[22] He later relented, and, having served the eighth and last match of his suspension in the first week of the 1937 season, he played in 19 matches and kicked 72 goals in 1937, his final VFL season.
Although a very reliable right-foot kick, Coventry was equally able to use his left foot accurately and effectively when needed – see, for example, his left-foot goal under pressure for Victoria at theSydney Cricket Ground in the 7 August 1933 match against South Australia during the1933 ANFC Carnival.[23]
The "broad-backed and sticky-fingered" Coventry[24] did not possess the phenomenal skills of his predecessor at Collingwood,Dick Lee, or the aerial prowess of his successor,Ron Todd, but relied on tremendous strength and a vice-like grip when marking the ball, a combination that made him almost unstoppable once he had front position.[3]
| External images | |
|---|---|
| Caricatures and Cartoons | |
 Gordon Coventry,inThe Herald, 14 August 1925.[26] | |
| G. Coventry, inTable Talk, 25 August 1927.[27] | |
| G. Coventry, inThe Herald, 30 April 1928.[28] | |
| G. Coventry, inTable Talk, 30 August 1928.[29] | |
| "Nuts" Coventry, inThe Herald, 2 August 1929.[30] | |
| Gordon Coventry, inThe Referee, 30 July 1930.[31] | |
| Gordon Coventry, inThe Herald, 28 May 1934.[32] | |
| Gordon ("Nuts") Coventry, inThe Age, 30 July 1937.[33] | |
| Gordon Coventry, inThe Age, 27 September 1937.[34] |
Coventry retired after the1937 season, the first player to play 300VFL/AFL games, winning his sixthleague leading goal-kicker award, and his 16th consecutiveclub leading goal-kicker award, a club record and five clear of Australian Football Legend and Collingwood predecessorDick Lee. Coventry also representedVictoria on 25 occasions for a total of 100 goals.
Coventry played in 31 finals matches in his 18-year career, includingthe drawn Semi-Final match against Melbourne on 15 September 1928 (the first drawn finals match in VFL history), and 10 grand finals, five of which were won by Collingwood (1927–1930, and 1935). In the1928 VFL grand final he kicked a league record 9 goals, in a match in which Collingwood beat Richmond 13.18 (96) to 9.9 (63).
He was the first player to kick 100 goals in a VFL season (which he did in 1929, 1930, 1933, and 1934), and he kicked a total of 1299 goals in VFL football: a record that stood for more than six decades until it was broken by Sydney Swans playerTony Lockett in the match against Coventry's former club, Collingwood, on6 June 1999.
His tallies included:
After leaving Collingwood, Coventry coachedCollegians in theVAFA for a number of years.[38]
Coventry married Christabel Violet Lawrey on 28 February 1925. They had four children:[39] two sons, George Gordon (b.1925)[40] and Graham (b.1945),[41] and two daughters, Betty Lois (b.1928), later Mrs.Alexander David Denney,[42] and Margaret Shirley (1930–2006), later Mrs. Charles James Banks.[43][44]
Three of Coventry's brothers served in theFirst AIF:[45] John Thomas "Jack" Coventry,[46] Hugh Norman "Oak" Coventry, who was (posthumously)mentioned in dispatches for "gallant devotion to duty as volunteer stretcher bearer, carrying the wounded" on 9 August 1916,[47] and had been killed in action while serving with the First AIF in Pozieres,[48] and Thomas Coventry, who was wounded in the arm and foot in action in France in 1916.[49]
Another older brother,Sydney Andrew Coventry (1899–1976), also played for Collingwood at the same time as Gordon.
While working as a miner atQueenstown, Tasmania, and playing football for the Miners' Football Team (as its captain), inGormanston, Tasmania, in 1920,[50] Syd was approached bySt Kilda and invited to play for them in 1921. Syd moved to Victoria, and influenced by Gordon, began training with Collingwood (rather than St Kilda) in the 1921 pre-season;[51] however, in May 1921, "an application by S.A. Coventry for transfer from Miners' (Tasmania) to Collingwood was refused [by the Victorian Football League Permit Committee]".[52][53]
Having served 12 months out of football, Syd was cleared "from Tasmania to Collingwood" on 26 April 1922.[54] He went on play in 227 VFL games for Collingwood (1922–1934) and 27 representative games for the VFL (1922–1934), captain Collingwood for 144 games (1927–1934), win theBrownlow Medal in 1927, and serve for three years as the non-playing coach of Footscray (1935–1937) before returning to Collingwood as an administrator, serving as its vice-president for 11 years (1939–1949), its president for 13 years (1950–1962), and its patron from 1963 until his death in 1976.
Coventry died ofheart disease on 7 November 1968 at his property inDiamond Creek, survived by his wife and four children.[55][56]
In 1996, Coventry was an inaugural inductee of theAustralian Football Hall of Fame and was elevated to "Legend" status (as the fourteenth "Legend") two years later.[57]
In 1998, he was named at full-forward inCollingwood's "Team of the Century".
On 24 November 1999, he was inducted into theSport Australia Hall of Fame.[58]
In 2009,The Australian nominated Coventry as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win aBrownlow Medal.[59]
TheGordon Coventry Trophy is awarded to Collingwood's leading goalkicker each year.[60] The southern end of theDocklands Stadium is named the "Coventry end". When the Southern Stand at the MCG was built, a gate/entrance was jointly named after Coventry and brother Syd.
