George Frederick Smeaton (27 May 1917 – 9 June 1978) 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 the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

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) between 1935 and 1942 and then again from 1944 to 1946. Smeaton was nicknamed the "Brown Bomber", a nickname borrowed from

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Brown Bomber", Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He r ...

, and was described by

Jack Dyer John Raymond Dyer Sr. OAM (15 November 1913 – 23 August 2003), nicknamed Captain Blood, was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1931 and 1949. One of the ga ...

as the toughest player he played with. He left Richmond in 1947 to take up a coaching position with Latrobe in Northern Tasmania.Coach for Latrobe, Examiner, 10 March 1947, pg5 He later returned to Victoria and had a successful coaching career in the

Victorian Football Association 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 ...

(VFA) where he led Oakleigh to three Grand Finals, winning premierships in 1950 and 1952 and losing the 1949 Grand Final due to a late goal by Williamstown. He was also an established cricketer, captaining the Victorian school boys cricket team.

External links

*
George Smeaton's playing statistics
from The VFA Project

Notes

References

* Hogan P: ''The Tigers of Old'', Richmond FC, Melbourne 1996 * Fiddian, Marc: ''Devils at Play. A History of the Oakleigh Football Club'', Pakenham Gazette, Pakenham 1982 1917 births 1978 deaths People from Carlton, Victoria Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Richmond Football Club players Oakleigh Football Club players Oakleigh Football Club coaches Latrobe Football Club players {{AFL-bio-1917-stub