Alfred Augustine Moffat (15 March 1870 – 8 December 1956) was an Australian sportsman and sports administrator. He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

and

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

for several clubs in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WAFL). After retiring from playing, he served as president of the WAFL from 1920 to 1932, and was also president of the Australian Football Council (AFC) from 1924 to 1929.

Early life and playing career

Moffat was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in 1870. His father, George Moffat, was a convict who had been

transported ''Transported'' is an Australian convict melodrama film directed by W. J. Lincoln. It is considered a lost film. Plot In England, Jessie Grey is about to marry Leonard Lincoln but the evil Harold Hawk tries to force her to marry him and she wou ...

to Western Australia in 1850 for the crime of forgery.Alfred Augustine MOFFAT
– NAB WA Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 24 June 2016. Moffat's first involvement with high-level sport came at the age of 18, when was elected secretary and treasurer of the Victorian Football Club (a WAFA foundation club) for the 1888 season. After a couple seasons at lower levels, he made his senior WAFA debut as a player in 1891, playing for the newly created

East Perth Football Club The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club based in Leederville, Western Australia, current playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Formed in 1902 as the Union Football Club, the club ...

(no relation to the current club of the same name). East Perth was disbanded at the end of the 1892 season, and Moffat subsequently switched to . His final club was Rovers, for which he played only during the 1895 season. Outside of football, Moffat played club cricket (

grade cricket Grade cricket, also known as Premier Cricket is the name of the senior inter-club or district cricket competitions in each of the Australian states and territories. The term may refer to: *Victorian Premier Cricket * NSW Premier Cricket *Queensl ...

) for the West Perth Cricket Club, as a right-arm medium-pace bowler. In early 1893, he was selected for Western Australia's tour of the eastern colonies, which was the first such tour to be organised. Moffat played in his team's matches against

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

(at

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby ...

) and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

(at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

), both of which would later be granted first-class status. Western Australia lost both matches by large margins, with Moffat going wicketless in the first game and taking a single wicket (that of Harry Stuckey) in the second.

Administrative career

Moffat served as the

Perth Football Club The Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club based in Lathlain, Western Australia, currently playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Representing the south-east area of the Perth metropol ...

's delegate to the WAFL from 1903 to 1919. He was elected president of the league in 1920 (having earlier been a vice-president), and served until 1932, when he resigned due to a dispute over player clearances. Moffat also served as president of the Australian Football Council (AFC), the nationwide governing body for Australian football, from 1924 to 1929. After leaving his more high-profile positions, he remained involved with the sport as president of the West Australian Amateur Football Association (WAAFA). Moffat died in Perth in 1956, aged 86. He had been made a life member of the WAFL in 1909, a life member of the Perth Football Club in 1910, and a life member of the AFC in 1927. In 2011, Moffat was posthumously inducted into the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise and enshrine those who have made a significant contribution to Australian rules football in Western Australia. People eligible for inclusion are players, coaches, umpires, ...

. He was cited as "one of the critical fosterers of the early growth of the game in Western Australia"."Sidebottom among six added to Hall of Fame"
''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

'', 4 March 2011.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moffatt, Alfred 1870 births 1956 deaths Australian cricketers Australian rules football administrators Cricketers from Perth, Western Australia Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia Perth Football Club administrators Public servants of Western Australia Rovers Football Club players West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees West Australian Football League administrators Western Australia cricketers West Perth Football Club players