James Gull (20 September 1928 – 7 November 2007) was an Australian rules footballer who played with

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip Local government ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...

(VFL). Gull was a prolific

centre half-forward In Australian rules football, the centre half-forward is a position on the half-forward line of a football field. The directly opposing player is a centre half-back. Royce Hart of the Richmond Football Club and Wayne Carey of the North Mel ...

in Victorian country football, especially in the

Ballarat Football League The Ballarat Football League (BFL) is an Australian rules football competition that operates in the Ballarat region of Victoria, Australia. The competition formed in 1893 as the Ballarat Football Association and was renamed Ballarat Football ...

, where he played for Daylesford. He started his career at Kenmare in 1946, he won the South Mallee Football League Best and fairest that year as a sixteen-year-old. He made his way to South Melbourne. During his time at South Melbourne he struggled with injury, breaking three ribs. In 1951 he left South Melbourne and moved to

Rupanyup Rupanyup ( ) is a small town in rural Victoria, Australia. As of the , it had a population of 536. The name Rupanyup is an Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal word meaning 'branch hanging over water'.Milk bar. He also was the playing coach of the town's football team. As a playing coach, Gull won the Toohey Medal in 1953, while with Rupanyup in the

Wimmera Football League The Wimmera Football League is a major Australian rules country league based in Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns in the Wimmera region: the regional centres along the Western Highway from Ararat to Nhill as well as Minyip-Murto ...

and later was the league leading goalkicker in 1957. In 1958 he joined Daylesford and would go on to kick 889 goals in the

. He topped the league's goal-kicking eight times, every year from 1958 to 1964 and again in 1968. His best season came in 1961 when he captain-coached Daylesford to a premiership and kicked a league record 159 goals. During the year he set another record when he kicked 21 goals and 13 behinds in a game against

North Ballarat North Ballarat Football & Netball Club, nicknamed ''The Roosters'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based at Mars Stadium in Ballarat. The club currently fields senior, reserve and Under 19 sides in the Ballarat Football Lea ...

. After leaving Daylesford, he continued playing football, at Elaine and Natte-Bealiba. He is estimated to have played 560 senior games over the course of his career. In 1971 he played one game with

with his son, Stewart Gull, who also played for South Melbourne. His daughter,

Robyn Maher Robyn Maher (born 6 October 1959) is a retired female basketball player from Australia, who played for the Sydney Uni Flames. A three-time Olympian she was a member of the national women's team that won the bronze medal at the 1996 Summer O ...

, represented Australia at

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gull, Jim 1928 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Sydney Swans players Daylesford Football Club players Rupanyup Football Club players 2007 deaths