George Alan Westwater (born 26 March 1946) is an Australian former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He was named in the Football Federation Australia's "Team of the Decade" for the period 1963-1970 as a midfielder.

Biography

Westwater was born in Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His father Willie was a footballer for

Morton F.C. Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

in the Scottish First Division. The Westwaters moved to Australia in 1957 when Willie transferred to Bankstown in Sydney.

Playing career

In 1962, as a 16-year-old, he made his debut for

Canterbury-Marrickville The Canterbury Bankstown Football Club is a soccer club based in Bankstown, New South Wales. The club currently plays in the NSW League Two after being relegated from the formerly NPL NSW 2 in 2019.(from 2022 known as NSW League One) Canterbury ...

in the New South Wales State League as an active right-side midfielder. During his first season both he and his father played in the state league. In 1963 the Canterbury club raised £500 to enable the 17-year-old Westwater to try his luck in Scotland for the 1963–64 season. A condition imposed by the club was that Westwater had to play with them on his return to Sydney for two years. He tried out with the

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

but ended up signing with Stirling Albion on 31 August 1963. After three seasons he returned to Sydney, Australia to play for Pan Hellenic.

International career

His composure in midfield and willingness to join in attack earned Westwater his international debut for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1967 against Scotland. He scored his first international goal against Singapore in November 1967 and scored his second goal ten days later against Singapore again. He played the last of his 14 international matches in April 1968 against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in Adelaide.

Honours

In December 2013 Westwater was named in the Football Federation Australia "Team of the Decade" for the period 1963–1970.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westwater, Alan 1946 births Australian soccer players Australia international soccer players Scottish footballers Sydney United 58 FC players Stirling Albion F.C. players Living people Association football midfielders