William Charles Gordon Thomas (20 February 1902 – 28 April 1968) 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

player, coach, and administrator who was involved with the East Perth Football Club in the

Western Australian National 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, ...

(WANFL) in a number of roles from the 1920s to the 1950s. Thomas played 114 games for the club from 1927 to 1936, having previously played for the Kalgoorlie City Football Club in the Goldfields National Football League (GNFL). He won

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

awards with East Perth in 1928 and 1929, also winning the Sandover Medal in the latter season. After his retirement, Thomas served as club secretary (1932 to 1941) and club president (1951 to 1955), as well as coaching the club in 1942, when the competition was age-restricted due to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Career

Thomas was born in

North Fremantle North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

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 ...

, on 20 February 1902, the son of Jack Thomas, a former captain of the Fremantle Football Club and secretary of the

North Fremantle Football Club The North Fremantle Football Club was an Australian rules football club which competed in the West Australian Football League from 1901 to 1915. North Fremantle started out in the First Rate Junior Association, the state's second tier competitio ...

. He moved to Geraldton with his family at the age of six, and played football for local teams from an early age, captaining his school team at the age of 16. Thomas subsequently captained the junior team of the Railways Football Club in the Geraldton Football Association (GFA), also playing seasons with teams from Moora and Mullewa.ROVERS DEAD-HEAT
– '' The Daily News''. Published 11 October 1929. Retrieved 25 August 2012. In 1922, he made his debut for Railways' senior team, captaining the side in 1924 before being transferred to Coolgardie due to his work as a

telegraphist A telegraphist (British English), telegrapher (American English), or telegraph operator is an operator who uses a telegraph key to send and receive the Morse code in order to communicate by land lines or radio. During the Great War the Royal ...

. He played one-and-a-half seasons of football with Kalgoorlie City in the

Goldfields Football League The Goldfields Football League is an Australian rules football league based in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. Founded in 1896 as Hannans District Football Association, the league enjoyed a seat and full voting rights on the Australi ...

(GFL) before again being transferred, this time to the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

in the

Perth central business district 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 p ...

. Thomas was cleared to East Perth for the 1927 season, making his debut in round three. Thomas won the Guthrie Gold Medal in 1928 as East Perth's

player, winning a second award the following season to become the first player to win the award in consecutive years. In the latter season, Thomas also won the Sandover Medal. Thomas served as coach of East Perth in 1942 when the WAFL was age-restricted to players under the age of 18. He also served as club secretary from 1932 to 1941 and club president from 1951 to 1955. During the 1938 season, Thomas was one of several ex-players, including

Keith Hough Keith Alan Hough (17 March 1908 – 13 July 1958) was an Australian rules footballer who played 120 games for Claremont in the West Australian National Football League (WANFL) during the late 1920s and 1930s. He missed the 1931 season because ...

, who volunteered to serve as umpires for one round (the regular umpires having withdrawn their services over a pay dispute). '' The Daily News'' noted that Thomas showed "outstanding ability", praising his "faultless display". Having moved to the South Perth district after his retirement from playing, Thomas was also involved in

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

during the late 1940s and early 1950s, serving on the South Perth Road Board and at one stage as president of the South Perth Community Centre Association. He also served as patron of the South Perth Football Club in the Metropolitan Junior Football Association (MJFA). In 2005, Thomas was named as the forward pocket in East Perth's pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

"Team of the Century".Teams of the 20th century
– eastperthfc.com.au. Retrieved 29 September 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Billy 1902 births 1968 deaths West Australian Football League umpires East Perth Football Club administrators East Perth Football Club coaches East Perth Football Club players Kalgoorlie City Football Club players Sportsmen from Western Australia Australian rules footballers from Fremantle Australian rules footballers from Geraldton