Maxwell Thomas Spittle (13 June 1920 – 12 June 2015) 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 with

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) until 1950.

Early and war years

Born at

Allendale, Victoria Allendale (aka Allandale) is a town in Victoria, Australia, located north-east of Creswick, in the Shire of Hepburn. At the , Allendale and the surrounding area had a population of 166. The town began as a mining settlement around the Berry Le ...

where his parents had a farm, Spittle was the fifth of six children to William Spittle and Anne Spittle (née Hobill). Attending primary school at both Allendale and Creswick North, from 1935 to 1938 he attended the

Ballarat Grammar School Ballarat and Queen's Anglican Grammar School is a private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, Day school, day and Boarding school, boarding school located in Wendouree, Victoria, Wendouree ...

, where he played football, cricket and tennis. In 1942 Spittle joined the

RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the governor-general of Aus ...

, initially conducting flight training at No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School, Temora NSW, he was later trained as a radar operator, spending the remainder of the war stationed at Coomalie Creek Airfield, in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Football years

Following the War, Spittle returned to the family farm and recommenced playing football for Smeaton. In 1947 he tried out for the Melbourne Football Club, stating he was born in 1922 to get the trial, most VFL/AFL sources still list his birth year as 1922. He debuted midway through the 1947 season, in the same game

Fred Fanning Fred Fanning (5 November 1921 – 23 May 1993) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Melbourne Football Club, Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (1897–1989), Victorian Football League (VFL) who holds the record for most g ...

was celebrating his 100th. A wingman noted for his speed, he was a member of Melbourne's 1948 premiership team and kicked the only goal of his career in a game against Richmond earlier in the season, he played a key role in the flag win that year. He went on to play 50 games for Melbourne, retiring in 1950 he returned to Ballarat and played for several years for

Redan Football Club The Redan Football Netball Club (nicknamed the ''Lions'') is an Australian rules football and netball club located in the city of Ballarat, Victoria. The football team currently competes in the Ballarat Football League. History The first Red ...

, being instrumental in their 1952 premiership win.

Post football years

Whilst playing for Melbourne Spittle started working for Millers ropeworks, once he had finished with Melbourne he continued to work for them as a salesman, covering most of the Mallee,

Wimmera The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on the social ...

and Western District. He later married Loretta and settled in

Bentleigh, Victoria Bentleigh is a suburb in Melbourne, Australia, 13 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Bentleigh recorded a population of 17,921 at the 2021 census. Within Bent ...

, he maintained strong links with the Melbourne Football Club and was a frequent sight within the members reserve at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

particularly at Melbourne games.

References

External links

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Demon Wiki profile
1920 births 2015 deaths Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Melbourne Football Club players Melbourne Football Club premiership players VFL/AFL premiership players Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II People from Creswick, Victoria Military personnel from Victoria (state) People educated at Ballarat Grammar School 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{AFL-bio-1920s-stub