Bernard Keith Smith (19 December 1927 – 21 April 1985) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who represented in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL) and in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) during the 1940s and 1950s. Smith made his name as a back pocket player in a successful period for Geelong.

SANFL career

Smith commenced his career with West Adelaide in the SANFL as a 16-year-old on 28 April 1945, playing primarily as a

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. He won the

Trabilsie Medal The Neil Kerley Medal (formerly known as the Trabilsie Medal and later the Steve Hamra Medal) is an Australian rules football award given to the player(s) from the West Adelaide Football Club deemed best and fairest, Best & Fairest for the season. ...

, West Adelaide's best and fairest award, in 1947, the same year that he played in their

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

triumph over Norwood, in which he was widely acknowledged as the best player afield. Also in 1947 Smith represented

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

at the interstate carnival, attracting the attention of the Victorian club, .

VFL career

Smith was recruited to Geelong for the 1948 season and played centreman during his first few years in the (then)

. In 1950, coach

Reg Hickey Reginald Joseph Hickey (27 March 1906 – 13 December 1973) was an Australian rules footballer who was a player, the captain, the captain-coach, and the non-playing coach for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) be ...

trialled Smith in the back pocket, and he adjusted quickly to the new position.

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

was a year to remember for Smith; he won the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

and club best and fairest, and was among the best on ground in Geelong's 1951 premiership victory. In combination with the dashing Fullback

Bruce Morrison Bruce Andrew Morrison (born October 8, 1944) is an American attorney, lobbyist and Democratic Party politician who represented Connecticut in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991. In 1990, he was the unsuccessful Democr ...

he created a sturdy defensive wall, and started the forward moves going again with his precision kicking. Under their leadership the Geelong defence was so strong that rival coaches had to turn their minds to finding ways through to goal. "Bernie Smith had a big smile, fair curly hair and looked like a country boy playing a country game of football. It seemed, however, that everywhere that Bernie went the ball was sure to go. "He was immensely popular around the club and his adopted city of Geelong." In 1996 Smith was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

.''Herald Sun'', "Bernie Smith", 18 August 2007, p. 90. In 2002 he was one of the 113 inaugural inductees into the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

References

Bibliography

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External links

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Profile at West Adelaide Hall of FameProfile at South Australian Football Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Bernie 1927 births 1985 deaths Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees All-Australians (1953–1988) West Adelaide Football Club players Geelong Football Club players Geelong Football Club premiership players Geelong Football Club captains Carji Greeves Medal winners Brownlow Medal winners Australian rules footballers from South Australia South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees VFL/AFL premiership players