Henry Coles (born 11 March 1951) is a retired

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 Collingwood and

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

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).

VFL career

Collingwood

Coles was recruited from

Kingsbury Kingsbury may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Kingsbury, London, a district of northwest London in the borough of Brent ** Kingsbury tube station, London Underground station * Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a village and civil parish in Warwickshi ...

,"Coles cleared to Melbourne"
''The Age''. 18 June 1975. Retrieved 14 August 2010. a suburb in north-eastern

. He made his VFL debut, playing as a goalkicking midfielder, in round 1 in 1971, for the Collingwood Football Club. Coles went on to play 44 games for the Magpies, kicking 48 goals in the five seasons he was at the club.

Melbourne

Coles played five matches for Collingwood during the first half of the 1975 season, but wished to move to the Demons midway through the season. During June he was cleared by Collingwood to play for the Melbourne Football Club, the team Coles played with for the rest of his VFL career. He played his first game for the Demons in round 12 against Footscray. In 1977 Coles was twice suspended for two matches, for striking John Pitura of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

and Lorenzo Serafini of Fitzroy.Phillips, Steven (20 June 1978)
"Henry Coles' language costs him one game"
''The Age''. Retrieved 14 August 2010. Coles played his first and only game for

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 ...

in 1978, against the ACT. Just nine days later, when Coles was playing his 100th VFL game, against his former club Collingwood, he was reported and in the end suspended for verbally abusing umpire Bill Deller. The 1978 season ended up being the high point of Coles's career, as he finished the season having played 21 matches and kicking 33 goals, thereby winning Melbourne's leading goalkicker award for the season. Coles' career deteriorated from 1978 onwards, playing only four games in 1979 and seven games in his final season of 1980. His VFL career ended in disgrace when he was fined $600 and suspended for a week after getting into a fight with his captain-coach,

Carl Ditterich Carl Robert Ditterich (born 10 October 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also coached Melbourne for two years, as a pl ...

.Carter, Ron (18 July 1980)
"Barassi WILL be a Demon"
''The Age''. Retrieved 14 August 2010. He played his last game for Melbourne in round 18 against

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...

References

External links

*
Henry Coles at the Collingwood Football Club website

DemonWiki page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coles, Henry 1951 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Collingwood Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 20th-century Australian sportsmen