Thomas 'Jock' Spencer (15 December 1928 – 15 April 2003) 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

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 ...

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 ...

. He was named at full-forward in North Melbourne's official 'Team of the Century'. Spencer started his league career in 1948 and the following season topped North Melbourne's goalkicking for the first of seven times with 65 goals. A consistent performer up forward, Spencer topped the club's goalkicking every season to 1956 with the exception of 1953 when he only managed to play four games. He had his most prolific year in front of goal in 1950 when he kicked 86 goals and finished runner up behind John Coleman in the league's goalkicking charts. In round 16 against South Melbourne he kicked a career best 11 goals, the first double figure bag of goals in a game by a North Melbourne player. The record was equaled in 1981 by

Malcolm Blight Malcolm Jack Blight AM (born 16 February 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian Na ...

and passed by

John Longmire John Longmire (born 31 December 1970) is the former senior coach of the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 2011 to 2024. As a player, he represented the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AF ...

in 1990. That season he was also a member of North Melbourne's inaugural grand final side but his three goals couldn't prevent his side from going down to Essendon. He won the North Melbourne

Best and Fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

in 1951. North Melbourne visited Bolton Park,

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

in 1952 and defeated a combined

Albury & District Football League The Albury & District Football League was established at a delegates meeting in Culcairn in 1930 from the following Australian Rules Football clubs – Albury Rovers, Culcairn, Henty and Holbrook and folded after the 1957 football season. History ...

side, with Spencer kicking 18 goals. Spencer regularly represented Victoria at interstate level, most notably at the

1956 Perth Carnival The 1956 Perth Carnival was the 13th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian football interstate competition. It took place from 11 to 23 June at Subiaco Oval, Perth. Five teams automatically qualified for the carniv ...

where he was the leading goalkicker with 17 goals. His final league tally of 475 goals was a club record until surpassed by John Longmire during the 1990s. He topped the

Goulburn Valley Football League The Goulburn Valley League (GVL), also known as the Goulburn Valley Football Netball League (GVFNL), is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia, Victoria. History The leag ...

goal kicking with

Shepparton United Football Club The Shepparton United Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Demons'', is an Australian rules football and netball based in the city of Shepparton in northern Victoria. The club teams currently compete in the Goulburn Valley League. History T ...

in 1963 (71) and 1965 (61).

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Jock 1928 births 2003 deaths North Melbourne Football Club players Syd Barker Medal winners Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Shepparton United Football Club players 20th-century Australian sportsmen