Ross Gibson Smith (born 12 September 1942) is a former

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 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). Smith played with St Kilda as a courageous

rover Rover may refer to: People Name * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Stage name * Rover (musician), French singer-songw ...

. He won the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

in 1967 and captained Victoria at the 1972 Perth Carnival. He once broke his arm smothering a ball in the late sixties and recovered to captain the Saints in the early seventies. He coached Subiaco to a premiership in 1973. He also coached his former club St Kilda for a single season (1977), leading them only three wins and to their first wooden spoon in 22 years. He also went on to lecture in physical education at Rusden SCV in Melbourne during the 1980s. In 1987 he was appointed as a director for the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

for 3 years, after which he was the director of Sports Science Sports Medicine research at the AIS for 10 years. He was inducted to the

Saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

inaugural Hall of Fame in 2003, and then the AFL Hall of Fame in 2010. In addition he was chosen as first rover in St Kilda's Team of the Century.

References

External links

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St Kilda Hall of Fame ProfileSaints honour roll
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ross G. Brownlow Medal winners St Kilda Football Club players St Kilda Football Club premiership players St Kilda Football Club coaches Trevor Barker Award winners Subiaco Football Club players Subiaco Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 1942 births Living people VFL/AFL premiership players Australian schoolteachers Australian sports executives and administrators