John Ernest Arthur Mueller (9 September 1915 – 14 June 2001) 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

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

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).

Family

The son of Francis Carl Mueller (1880-1945), and Eliza Mary "Cissie" Mueller (1887-1960), née O'Brien, John Ernest Arthur Mueller was born on 9 September 1915. He married Margaret Rose "Greta" Toohey on 14 April 1942.

Football

Mueller was famous for having only eight fingers, after losing two when he caught his hand in a machine at work. He was an inspirational player who contributed significantly to the success of the Melbourne sides in which he played during the 1930s, '40s and '50s. He was notable as the primary instigator of Melbourne's 1948 flag victory after being recalled from retirement (with the reserves) for that year's Preliminary Final in which he kicked eight of his team's 25 goals against Collingwood. He followed this up with six out of 10 in the drawn Grand Final with Essendon and another six out of 13 the following week when Melbourne won the replay.

War Service

After initially being rejected in 1941 due to his missing fingers, Mueller served in the Australian Army from 1943 to 1945, playing very few games for Melbourne in these three seasons.

Post-football career

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Mueller was a football commentator on 3KZ, working first with Norman Banks and later Philip Gibbs. Mueller also worked with Gibbs on the program '' Football Inquest'', which was later simulcast on 3KZ and

GTV-9 GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia, owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands. GTV-9 is the home of the Australian Open tennis coverage. History GTV-9 was ...

Death

Jack Mueller died on 14 June 2001Obituary, ''The Riverine Herald'', (Friday, 29 June 2001), p.13.
/ref> and is buried at Springvale Botanical Cemetery.

Footnotes

References

*
Minchin, James, "Echuca's Greatest", ''The Riverine Herald'', (Friday, 30 June 2000), p.28.
*
AFL site: Australian Football Hall of Fame

External links

* *
Jack Mueller, at ''Boyles Football photos''.
1915 births 2001 deaths Sportspeople from Echuca Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Melbourne Football Club players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy winners Echuca Football Club players Australian amputees Melbourne Football Club premiership players VFL/AFL premiership players Australian Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Victoria (state) 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{AFL-bio-1915-stub