Allan Robert Charles McLean (1 February 1914 – 9 November 1989) 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 played for

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

and Norwood 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 St Kilda 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). Affectionately referred to as "Big Bob" McLean, he later became a long-serving football administrator in South Australia. He was also a good cricketer, representing

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 ...

in the

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Henry Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield, Lor ...

and topped the Australian bowling and batting averages in 1947. He was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

1983 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1983 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...

for service to sport.

Football career

As a player, McLean was mainly a ruckman 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's leading goal-kicker award. He also represented

in nine interstate matches over the course of his career. While on military service in Melbourne, he made three appearances for St Kilda in the

1941 VFL season The 1941 VFL season was the 45th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 26 April until 27 September, and comprised an ...

Cricket career

McLean, a right-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler, appeared in 20

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

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 the

, towards the end of December 1949. The first was an innings of 213 which he made opening the batting against

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

at the

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

, dwarfing his team's next-highest score of 45. Just two days after that match ended, South Australia met

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

—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 of

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

cricketer

Doug Ring Douglas Thomas Ring (14 October 1918 – 23 June 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and for Australia in 13 Test matches between 1948 and 1953. In 129 first-class cricket matches, he took 426 wickets bowling leg spin, a ...

as well as future Test players

Jack Hill Jack Hill (born January 28, 1933) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the exploitation genre. He was an early associate of Francis Ford Coppola and Roger Corman, and worked on many films distributed by American International Pictur ...

and Jack Iverson. In his district career with Port Adelaide from 1939 to 1954, he scored over 5000 runs and took more than 500 wickets. His first name, Allan, is given on cricket scorecards instead of Bob.

Football administration

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 involved 's attempt to obtain John Cahill. Bob McLean said that this was fair game but that he would "get the next flight to Melbourne and speak to Carl Ditterich (St Kilda's then captain)" if it were to happen. St Kilda reportedly cancelled their visit.

Legacy

In 2007, he 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 ...

. Five years earlier he had been one of the inaugural inductees in 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 ...

. The A. R. McLean Medal is awarded to the best-and-fairest winner for the

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where it is nicknamed the ...

side in the SANFL each year. His son Ian 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).

References

External links

*
Cricinfo: Bob McLean
*Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. {{DEFAULTSORT:McLean, Bob 1914 births 1989 deaths St Kilda Football Club players Norwood Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Port Adelaide Football Club administrators South Australian National Football League administrators Australian cricketers South Australia cricketers Cricketers from Adelaide Australian rules footballers from Adelaide South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Australian sportsmen