Thomas Joseph Cullinan Fitzmaurice (7 July 1898 – 25 December 1977) 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 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).

Football

A brilliant centre-half-back, he commenced his career with

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

1918. Transferred to Sydney in 1921 with his employment, Fitzmaurice played that season in the local competition and captained New South Wales against Victoria and Tasmania. He rejoined Essendon in 1922 and later formed part of their very successful

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

premiership teams. In the famous Essendon "mosquito fleet" (so called because of the half-dozen players 168 cm or under), Fitzmaurice was the tallest member of the side at 189 cm. Fitzmaurice left Essendon after the controversy at the end of the 1924 season when he felt that several Essendon players had deliberately lost a match against

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 ...

premiers . He played in a premiership team at

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Kardinia Park in South Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

in his first year. Leaving Geelong after 1928, he played with Mortlake and then the VFA side, Yarraville. He returned to the VFL in 1932, playing with North Melbourne. Moving to the forward lines he became their leading goalkicker for three seasons. He took over the coaching position at North after Dick Taylor resigned in disgust in mid-1934. He had eight games to turn the club around, but they didn't win any games. Re-appointed for 1935, Fitzmaurice resigned a broken man after a winless 8 rounds. The last straw was an insipid effort against eventual premiers . In 1936, he agreed to be a committeeman at . After twelve months he decided to play again, this time in Penguin, Tasmania.

Hall of Fame

In 1996, Fitzmaurice was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

Champions of Essendon

In 1997, Fitzmaurice was included in Essendon's inaugural Team of the Century. In 2002, an Essendon panel ranked him at 10 in their '' Champions of Essendon'' list of the 25 greatest players ever to have played for Essendon.

Footnotes

References

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External links

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AFL Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzmaurice, Tom 1898 births 1977 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Players of Australian handball Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club premiership players Champions of Essendon Geelong Football Club players Geelong Football Club premiership players Yarraville Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club coaches Geelong Football Club coaches Mortlake Football Club players Penguin Football Club players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Crichton Medal winners VFL/AFL premiership players People from Fitzroy, Victoria