Cyril Leonard Gambetta (1 August 1899 – 20 August 1974) was an Italian-

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 St Kilda 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). Due to having suffered from

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as a child he had badly bowed legs which gave him an awkward running style. Gambetta came to Melbourne from Sandhurst in Bendigo at the start of the 1921 season. After being refused a clearance to St Kilda, he joined

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

in the

Victorian Football Association 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 ...

(VFA) where he played as a forward. The next season, he joined St Kilda where he spent most of his time as a key position defender and was twice chosen to represent Victoria at interstate football. He won St Kilda's best player award in

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...

and finished equal sixth in the

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

. In June, 1925,

Benalla Football Club The Benalla Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Saints'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in Benalla, Victoria. Its football and netball teams currently compete in the Goulburn Valley Football League. History ;Benalla ...

offered Gambetta their coaching job, but St.Kilda refused to clear him

References

External links

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Italian Team of the Century Cyril Gambetta of St. Kilda One of Victoria’s Greatest Footballers
from the Sporting Globe 1899 births 1974 deaths Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Sandhurst Football Club players St Kilda Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club (VFA) players Australian rules footballers from Bendigo {{AFL-bio-1899-stub