Clarence Joseph Nolan (24 August 1904 – 18 January 1998) 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 ...

er who played with

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). Nolan, was a

Benalla Benalla is a small city located on the Broken River gateway to the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the the population was 10,822. It is the administrative centr ...

and

Shepparton Shepparton () ( Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, ...

recruit, who joined North Melbourne in 1925 and took part in their inaugural VFL season. He was

's leading goal-kicker in 1928 with 24 goals, despite not registering his first goal until round nine.AFL Tables: Clarrie Nolan
/ref> In 1928, Nolan won the ''

Sporting Globe ''The Sporting Globe'' was a newspaper published in Melbourne from 1922 until 1996. The first issue was published on 22 July 1922, and for the first four weeks it was published only on Saturday evenings; from 16 August 1922 it introduced a Wednesd ...

'' newspaper competition for the longest place kick, with a kick of 71 yards, 2 foot & 4 inches. In 1929, Nolan joined

West Albury West Albury is a suburb of the city of Albury, New South Wales, located west of the Albury Central Business District. At the , West Albury had a population of 3,851. West Albury covers the slopes of Nail Can Hill on the Murray River floodplain ...

as captain-coach and kicked seven goals in their

Ovens and Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Austral ...

grand final win against

East Albury Football Club East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

. In June 1930, Nolan stepped aside as captain / coach of West Albury to allow Haydn Bunton to take over as captain / coach on his return to West Albury from

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

. Nolan played in four consecutive O&MFL grand finals with West Albury between 1929 and 1932. Nolan stood for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

for the seat of Hume in the 1940 Federal Election, which was retained very narrowly from Nolan by Thomas Collins. Nolan was a co-founder of the Nolan Brothers Sports Stores, located in

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

, Leeton and

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

for many years. Clarrie was the older brother of Melbourne footballer, Leo Nolan.

References

External links

*
1929 West Albury FC team photo1930 West Albury FC team photo
1904 births 1998 deaths Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents North Melbourne Football Club players Albury Football Club players {{AFL-bio-1904-stub