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It's been said that, he's only played under Danny Cassett at 32 clubs and used alias's at the other 28.
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AFLW 2024 - Round 9 - Indigenous Round - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
NOW to sometime later in the year (maybe) - Talk about anything
- Thread starter CliffMcTainshaw
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There are a few about.
- Sep 22, 2011
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Sutton claimed to be the only full-time professional footballer in the 70s/80s. Travelled Australian playing everywhere and anywhere.
Trained with Footscray early on but didn’t make it.
Claimed at stage that he played 600+ senior games and kicked 4000+ goals. The reality was more like half that, which is still incredible of course.
In terms of clubs few hold a candle to Fev, who played mostly one-off games, but played for these clubs and a few others…
Carlton
Brisbane
Casey Scorpions
Narre Warren
Waratahs
Yarrawonga
New Norfolk
Monbulk
Griffith
Rockingham Rams
Edenhope-Apsley
Bacchus Marsh
Kinglake
Lindenow
Geelong West
Kangaroo Flat
Woodend-Hesket
Sandown Cobras
Perth (Tas)
Deer Park
Hurstbridge
Frankston Bombers
Doveton
Coolangatta
Marong
Glenrowan
Melton South
St Kilda City
Heidelberg West
Diamond Valley (Super Rules)
Playing at East Sunbury in 2025.
- Apr 11, 2015
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Apparently Sutton twice kicked more than 200 goals. As a a full time professional, it makes you wonder how he ever made it to the Olympics as an amateur.
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He beats my 22. Then again, my total was bolstered by playing for 17 clubs in 17 weeks in 17 leagues (mostly in the reserves) as part of a book I wrote about grassroots footy in WA about 10 years ago. No cash changed hands - all I wanted from the clubs was to keep my jumper as a souvenir and to hear the story about their club and footy in that region.
Vic - Templestowe, Kinglake, Surrey Park.
SA - Callington.
WA - Albany Sharks, Boyup Brook, Broome Saints, Canning Vale, Cervantes, Goomalling, Harvey Bulls, Kambalda, Kukerin-Dumbleyung, Kulin-Kondinin, Melville, Newman Pioneers, Northampton, Ports (Esperance), Railways (Northam), South Mandurah, Southern Saints (Masters), Townsite Eagles (Tom Price).
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You’d be very wrong though as he was coach of the school teams long before the VAFA gig and still is.
He was doing that long before he coached Whitefriars in VAFA. But im sure it was a convenient overlay and he could have been rewarded in some way.
- Sep 22, 2011
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Tony Weeks appointed Donvale coach.
Is that just Waverley left that don’t have a coach?
Is that just Waverley left that don’t have a coach?
Thats it now, just Waverley.
Wild Thing
Team Captain
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Yeah thought those 2 were a fair way in front….just the way you mentioned Van Unen I thought he was up there as well.
- Apr 11, 2015
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Don't be silly he's been a teacher there for quite a while.
- Dec 12, 2022
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Couple of familiar surnames for their respective EFL clubs in the right hand column.
Any relation to the more recent Neil and Garthwaite(s) playing for Vermont and Montrose respectively?
Any relation to the more recent Neil and Garthwaite(s) playing for Vermont and Montrose respectively?
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Justin Whitcher - appointed Assistant and Development Coach @ Doncaster East
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Trevor Sutton. What a player and certainly moved around a bit. So many stories about him and as someone who saw him play up close he did have some ability and consistently delivered.
Did play at many clubs but always remembered as a good man and quality player. Certainly doesn't have the stories or background of the 'indian' aka Danny Cassett.
- Sep 22, 2011
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This article is 10 years old, refers to 18 clubs that Sutton played for.
He was for sale every year to any club in the country. They got their moneys worth in this season!
TREVOR Sutton’s blue and yellow No.8 jumper stands proudly framed on the walls of the Deniliquin Rams, a constant reminder of the 1982 season when he shot the goalkicking lights out.
Sutton was a 186cm footballing nomad, his “have boots will travel” outlook taking him to football fields in every Australian state and territory.
And those boots served him well, never better than in ’82 when he booted an Australian record of 249 goals.
Thirty-one years on and that magical feat remains the benchmark for the wannabe’s who try to steal Sutton’s thorny crown as the Prince of Goalkickers.
The most recent aspirant is 34-year-old Aaron Purcell of Jerilderie who yesterday finished with 222 after kicking one goal in his team’s grand final win against Strathmerton in the Picola League.
When rung this week, Sutton knew straight away there must be another challenger, a new gun out there trying to erase his name from the record books.
“Whenever you blokes in the media ring around this time it’s always about the same thing. So who is the bloke that’s getting close?,” Sutton said.
“I reckon there’s been five or six who have topped 200 since me, but they seem to struggle to crack the 250 mark.”
Sutton’s name is still spoken of with reverence, whether it concerns the 239 goals he booted in the Darwin league for Nightcliff between 1979-93, or his goalkicking exploits for places such as North Albany, Carnamah, East Fremantle, Claremont, Geraldton, Footscray, Norwood, Coorparoo, North Shore, Kedron, Karatha North, Sandgate, Lake Boga, Robinvale, Townsville Swans, East Wagga-Kooringal and Deniliquin.
The stories abound, the favourite being a party trick of Sutton’s when he would take a mark and when walking with his back to the goals, suddenly kick the ball over his head.
“It used to demoralise my opponent a bit. Just a way of playing with their head,” laughed Sutton, who these days works as a prison supervisor in Darwin.
“When I went to Deni in my first year I played centre half-forward and kicked 121. The next year I moved to full-forward and started getting some bags, but we didn’t win the grand final and I would gladly trade it.
“We got beaten by not much in the preliminary final. I got 13 in the first final and 12 in the prelim final. I get back there occasionally because my wife comes from there.”
Greg Danckert, who played with Sutton in that memorable 1982 season, recalls a flamboyant entertainer whose like has never been seen in the area before or since.
“People still talk regularly of Trevor Sutton in this district. He was super quick over the first 10 metres, a phenomenal kick and as good in the air as on the ground,” Danckert said.
“He packed the crowds in like we have never seen. It’s fair to say he wasn’t a huge trainer and he did enjoy the after part of football.”
Sutton is more blunt: “I would have been a better player if I wasn’t as worried about chasing girls and having a drink.”
Mick Smith, or Michael McLeod as he is today after taking his second wife’s surname, found his way to Killarney Vale in the NSW Central Coast League via Rosebud and then army duty at Puckapunyal when he played with local club Longwood.
A massage therapist and handyman based in the northern Sydney suburb of Berowra, 56-year-old McLeod arrived six games into the season as Mick Smith in 1986.
A 194cm ruckman/centre half-forward, he found himself at full-forward given Killarney Vale was well catered for in the other areas. And from there it began, goals raining with regularity that Lionel Messi would be amazed by.
“I had regularly represented the Army in Australian rules and played a few other sports. I was reasonably quick for a big bloke and could kick it a fair way with a torpedo when required,” McLeod said.
“Our captain was Tony McVeigh, the father of AFL players Mark and Jarrad, and we had a really talented centreman named Mitch Gray.
“I ended up averaging around 15 goals a game and we won the flag, but I didn’t win the best and fairest. That went to Mitch Gray. I think I was up there though.”
You would hope so given only Sutton has booted more goals in a season, with McLeod returning a best haul of 39 against one hapless opponent.
Anthony Baker had his day in the sun in 1989 after a roundabout route via Hobart. A state high jump champion who could clear Aaron Sandilands (211cm), he played with Longford when doing physical education in Launceston.
Then he joined Manangatang for a couple of years before teaching took him to Mackay and local club Bakers Creek.
“Up until that point I had played mainly as an on-baller so when they played me at full-forward I had no expectations of kicking 100 goals, let alone 200,” said Baker, 48, who is 186cm.
“But I was a reasonably accurate kick and there were some weaker teams in the competition, such as Airlie Beach who I kicked 27 against. When I kicked my 216 there was a local newspaper report saying it was an Australian record.
“But I had heard the name Trevor Sutton and knew he had done something special a few years earlier. But at least I had the local record. Then two years later I heard that some bugger (Peter Harris) had passed it for North Mackay. Didn’t last long.
“In 1983 when I was 18 I played full-forward in the grand final when our regular bloke had been knocked out. I kicked nine out of 10 and we won. Afterwards there was talk Hawthorn wanted me to do a pre-season but I never followed it up.”
Two weeks ago Purcell kicked 10 goals to break the Piccola League record of 215 goals set in 1992 by the hulking 195cm and 125kg frame of Danny Irwin at Waaia.
Irwin, or Daniel Hart as he is known today after changing his name to honour his stepson, had his century up after nine games and his double ton in round 18.
“A few people ran on to the ground and the boys up on the hill gave me a bit of a cheer,” recalled Hart, 43, who now lives at Wallan and works as a sales representative for a chemical company.
“So now my record for that league has been broken. How do I feel? I wish Aaron (Purcell) all the best. I think it’s fantastic because this day and age it’s harder to kick those big tallies, you just don’t see it as much.
“I knew Trevor Sutton had kicked that tally before me. To think 249 in a season is a bit unbelievable. He must have been some player.”
Peter Ruscuklic was another of those who didn’t quite make it in stints with Fitzroy and Geelong so in 1979, with his brother Alex appointed as coach, he took his goalkicking talents to East Sydney.
Playing at centre half-forward in his first two seasons of 1979-80, the 191cm Ruscuklic booted 136 and 156.
Then all hell broke loose in 1981, including tallies of 24, 22 and 18 in a 64-goal blitz over three weeks.
“I played full-forward that year and actually missed four games with injury and from memory ended up playing around 19 matches. So given I averaged over 11 goals a game, I would have got 250-plus,” said Ruscuklic, 57, who runs a restoration company in Melbourne.
“When I was getting near 200 the papers were talking about the Australian record being 196, then it became 199, and then the 209 that Peter Hudson kicked in all games of 1979 when he was with Glenorchy in Tasmania.
“I thought 213.75, they kept stats of my points, was pretty good but the next year Trevor Sutton kicked 249. In 1982 Kevin Sheedy gave me a ring about joining Essendon but nothing came of it.
“I left the next season to play with Myrtleford in the Ovens and Murray and kicked 95. To me the Sydney competition was about as good as the Diamond Valley league and inferior to the O & M, where I played with a young man named Gary Ablett. He had some talent.”
LEADING GOALKICKERS IN A SINGLE SEASON
249: Trevor Sutton (Deniliquin, NSW) 1982
234: Mick Smith (Killarney Vale, NSW) 1986.
228: Peter Harris (North Mackay, Qld) 1991
223: Rod Tregenza (South Mandurah, WA) 2008
222: Aaron Purcell (Jerilderie, NSW) 2013
220: Bill Pearson (Old Scotch Collegians, Vic) 1934.
216: Anthony Baker (Bakers Creek, Qld) 1989
215: Danny Irwin (Waaia, Vic) 1992.
213: Peter Ruscuklic (East Sydney, NSW) 1981.
210: Matt Smith (Cowra, NSW) 2006
205: Jason Mifsud (Caramut, Vic) 1994
He was for sale every year to any club in the country. They got their moneys worth in this season!
Country footballer Trevor Sutton's single-season tally of 249 goals has stood the test of time
TREVOR Sutton’s blue and yellow No.8 jumper stands proudly framed on the walls of the Deniliquin Rams, a constant reminder of the 1982 season when he shot the goalkicking lights out.
Sutton was a 186cm footballing nomad, his “have boots will travel” outlook taking him to football fields in every Australian state and territory.
And those boots served him well, never better than in ’82 when he booted an Australian record of 249 goals.
Thirty-one years on and that magical feat remains the benchmark for the wannabe’s who try to steal Sutton’s thorny crown as the Prince of Goalkickers.
The most recent aspirant is 34-year-old Aaron Purcell of Jerilderie who yesterday finished with 222 after kicking one goal in his team’s grand final win against Strathmerton in the Picola League.
When rung this week, Sutton knew straight away there must be another challenger, a new gun out there trying to erase his name from the record books.
“Whenever you blokes in the media ring around this time it’s always about the same thing. So who is the bloke that’s getting close?,” Sutton said.
“I reckon there’s been five or six who have topped 200 since me, but they seem to struggle to crack the 250 mark.”
Sutton’s name is still spoken of with reverence, whether it concerns the 239 goals he booted in the Darwin league for Nightcliff between 1979-93, or his goalkicking exploits for places such as North Albany, Carnamah, East Fremantle, Claremont, Geraldton, Footscray, Norwood, Coorparoo, North Shore, Kedron, Karatha North, Sandgate, Lake Boga, Robinvale, Townsville Swans, East Wagga-Kooringal and Deniliquin.
The stories abound, the favourite being a party trick of Sutton’s when he would take a mark and when walking with his back to the goals, suddenly kick the ball over his head.
“It used to demoralise my opponent a bit. Just a way of playing with their head,” laughed Sutton, who these days works as a prison supervisor in Darwin.
“When I went to Deni in my first year I played centre half-forward and kicked 121. The next year I moved to full-forward and started getting some bags, but we didn’t win the grand final and I would gladly trade it.
“We got beaten by not much in the preliminary final. I got 13 in the first final and 12 in the prelim final. I get back there occasionally because my wife comes from there.”
Greg Danckert, who played with Sutton in that memorable 1982 season, recalls a flamboyant entertainer whose like has never been seen in the area before or since.
“People still talk regularly of Trevor Sutton in this district. He was super quick over the first 10 metres, a phenomenal kick and as good in the air as on the ground,” Danckert said.
“He packed the crowds in like we have never seen. It’s fair to say he wasn’t a huge trainer and he did enjoy the after part of football.”
Sutton is more blunt: “I would have been a better player if I wasn’t as worried about chasing girls and having a drink.”
Mick Smith, or Michael McLeod as he is today after taking his second wife’s surname, found his way to Killarney Vale in the NSW Central Coast League via Rosebud and then army duty at Puckapunyal when he played with local club Longwood.
A massage therapist and handyman based in the northern Sydney suburb of Berowra, 56-year-old McLeod arrived six games into the season as Mick Smith in 1986.
A 194cm ruckman/centre half-forward, he found himself at full-forward given Killarney Vale was well catered for in the other areas. And from there it began, goals raining with regularity that Lionel Messi would be amazed by.
“I had regularly represented the Army in Australian rules and played a few other sports. I was reasonably quick for a big bloke and could kick it a fair way with a torpedo when required,” McLeod said.
“Our captain was Tony McVeigh, the father of AFL players Mark and Jarrad, and we had a really talented centreman named Mitch Gray.
“I ended up averaging around 15 goals a game and we won the flag, but I didn’t win the best and fairest. That went to Mitch Gray. I think I was up there though.”
You would hope so given only Sutton has booted more goals in a season, with McLeod returning a best haul of 39 against one hapless opponent.
Anthony Baker had his day in the sun in 1989 after a roundabout route via Hobart. A state high jump champion who could clear Aaron Sandilands (211cm), he played with Longford when doing physical education in Launceston.
Then he joined Manangatang for a couple of years before teaching took him to Mackay and local club Bakers Creek.
“Up until that point I had played mainly as an on-baller so when they played me at full-forward I had no expectations of kicking 100 goals, let alone 200,” said Baker, 48, who is 186cm.
“But I was a reasonably accurate kick and there were some weaker teams in the competition, such as Airlie Beach who I kicked 27 against. When I kicked my 216 there was a local newspaper report saying it was an Australian record.
“But I had heard the name Trevor Sutton and knew he had done something special a few years earlier. But at least I had the local record. Then two years later I heard that some bugger (Peter Harris) had passed it for North Mackay. Didn’t last long.
“In 1983 when I was 18 I played full-forward in the grand final when our regular bloke had been knocked out. I kicked nine out of 10 and we won. Afterwards there was talk Hawthorn wanted me to do a pre-season but I never followed it up.”
Two weeks ago Purcell kicked 10 goals to break the Piccola League record of 215 goals set in 1992 by the hulking 195cm and 125kg frame of Danny Irwin at Waaia.
Irwin, or Daniel Hart as he is known today after changing his name to honour his stepson, had his century up after nine games and his double ton in round 18.
“A few people ran on to the ground and the boys up on the hill gave me a bit of a cheer,” recalled Hart, 43, who now lives at Wallan and works as a sales representative for a chemical company.
“So now my record for that league has been broken. How do I feel? I wish Aaron (Purcell) all the best. I think it’s fantastic because this day and age it’s harder to kick those big tallies, you just don’t see it as much.
“I knew Trevor Sutton had kicked that tally before me. To think 249 in a season is a bit unbelievable. He must have been some player.”
Peter Ruscuklic was another of those who didn’t quite make it in stints with Fitzroy and Geelong so in 1979, with his brother Alex appointed as coach, he took his goalkicking talents to East Sydney.
Playing at centre half-forward in his first two seasons of 1979-80, the 191cm Ruscuklic booted 136 and 156.
Then all hell broke loose in 1981, including tallies of 24, 22 and 18 in a 64-goal blitz over three weeks.
“I played full-forward that year and actually missed four games with injury and from memory ended up playing around 19 matches. So given I averaged over 11 goals a game, I would have got 250-plus,” said Ruscuklic, 57, who runs a restoration company in Melbourne.
“When I was getting near 200 the papers were talking about the Australian record being 196, then it became 199, and then the 209 that Peter Hudson kicked in all games of 1979 when he was with Glenorchy in Tasmania.
“I thought 213.75, they kept stats of my points, was pretty good but the next year Trevor Sutton kicked 249. In 1982 Kevin Sheedy gave me a ring about joining Essendon but nothing came of it.
“I left the next season to play with Myrtleford in the Ovens and Murray and kicked 95. To me the Sydney competition was about as good as the Diamond Valley league and inferior to the O & M, where I played with a young man named Gary Ablett. He had some talent.”
LEADING GOALKICKERS IN A SINGLE SEASON
249: Trevor Sutton (Deniliquin, NSW) 1982
234: Mick Smith (Killarney Vale, NSW) 1986.
228: Peter Harris (North Mackay, Qld) 1991
223: Rod Tregenza (South Mandurah, WA) 2008
222: Aaron Purcell (Jerilderie, NSW) 2013
220: Bill Pearson (Old Scotch Collegians, Vic) 1934.
216: Anthony Baker (Bakers Creek, Qld) 1989
215: Danny Irwin (Waaia, Vic) 1992.
213: Peter Ruscuklic (East Sydney, NSW) 1981.
210: Matt Smith (Cowra, NSW) 2006
205: Jason Mifsud (Caramut, Vic) 1994
The problem with Sutton was that there were one of two years in the 1970s where he was claiming to be in two places at the same time (not including the NTFL).
At one stage, he claimed to have kicked 148 goals for Geraldton in the Great Northern NFL in 1970 but the league's comprehensive records call this one out as a "little" white lie ... plus the fact that there is no such club as Geraldton ... oops!
So we can shave some of those goals of his reported tally.
So we can shave some of those goals of his reported tally.
localfootylegend23
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CTE before it was famous
Ripping bloke too! Another with a teaching background who is making a name as a coach.
