Norman Leslie Goss (6 June 1915 – 17 March 1983) 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 ...

administrator who was heavily involved with the

Port Melbourne Football Club The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne. The club was founded in 1874 and has been competing in the Victorian Football League (VFL) – ...

and

Victorian Football Association 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 ...

throughout his career. He was also a player at Port Melbourne and .

Playing career

Goss played his earlier football for

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, Port Phillip Local government ...

in the

, having made his debut in 1937. He finished his VFA career with 85 games, but it would have been more had the league not gone into recess during the second world war. As a result, he spent two seasons in the VFL with Hawthorn, playing five games in 1942 and a further three in 1943. Goss won premierships with Port Melbourne in 1940 and 1941.

Administration

After leaving Hawthorn, Goss continued playing at Port Melbourne until taking up the role of club secretary in 1947, in which he was highly influential. He remained in this role until 1976 and was then the VFA's vice-president through to 1981. From 1981 to 1983 he served as Port Melbourne's president. In the infamous

1967 VFA Grand Final The 1967 VFA Division 1 Grand Final was an Australian rules football match played between the Dandenong Football Club, Dandenong Redlegs and the Port Melbourne Football Club, Port Melbourne Borough. The match was held on Sunday 24 September 1967 ...

, during his time as secretary, Goss is known to have intervened to stop captain-coach Brian Buckley sending his team off the field to protest against the umpiring. Following Goss' death in March 1983, the VFA established the

Norm Goss Memorial Medal The Norm Goss Memorial Medal is awarded to the player judged to be the best afield in the Victorian Football League grand final. It is named after former player and administrator Norm Goss Sr. When the competition was split into two divisions ...

, which has been awarded annually since 1983, to the best player afield in the VFA/VFL grand final. In the 1970s, the main grandstand of

North Port Oval North Port Oval, also known as the Port Melbourne Cricket Ground or by the sponsored name ETU Stadium, is an Australian rules football and cricket stadium located in Port Melbourne, Australia. The capacity of the venue is 6,000 people. It is ...

's home ground, was named the "Norman L Goss Stand" in his honour.

Family

One of his sons, also named

Norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...

, would likewise start his career at Port Melbourne and play league football for Hawthorn, in addition to South Melbourne. Two more sons,

Kevin Kevin is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; ; ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicised from , an Irish diminutive form.''A Dictiona ...

and

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

, played for South Melbourne and Melbourne respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goss Sr, Norm 1915 births Hawthorn Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club administrators VFA/VFL administrators Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 1983 deaths 20th-century Australian sportsmen