Donald 'Don' Wilfred Gale (20 February 1935 – 22 August 2002) 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 who played for Wynyard and Burnie in the NWFU and

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

in the TFL. He was selected in regional and state representative teams.

Wynyard

Gale began his senior career with Wynyard in 1953, debuting against Penguin on 18 April 1953. He performed so well in his first season that he finished fourth in the club best and fairest award.

Unable to move to VFL

He was signed by South Melbourne at the end of the 1954 season, but over the next couple of years was unable to obtain a clearance.

Hobart and back to Wynyard

Gale played with Hobart in 1957, but then returned to Wynyard in 1958. At the Melbourne Centenary Carnival that year, Gale achieved

All Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

selection,https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IEkRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JpUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3385%2C2074797 ''The Age'', 14 July 1958, page 16 becoming the first player from the NWFU to do so.

Burnie

Don Gale was captain-coach of Burnie for the 1961 and 1962 seasons, leading his team to the premiership in the latter year. He then announced his retirement at the age of 27.

Family connections to football

His father,

Jack Gale Jack Gale (28 August 1899 – 5 April 1975) was an Australian rules footballer who played three games in the VFL for Richmond Football Club in 1924. He returned to Tasmania and was Captain/Coach of the Wynyard Football Club from 1927 and 192 ...

, played three games for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

in the

VFL 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 ...

in 1924 and his two sons, Michael Gale and

Brendon Gale Brendon Gale (born 18 July 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). After his AFL playing career, Gale practiced law with commercial law firm King Wood Ma ...

, had lengthy

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

careers throughout the 1990s.

References

External links

* * https://afltashalloffame.com.au/inductees/69-don-gale/ Burnie Football Club players Hobart Football Club players Wynyard Football Club players All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian rules footballers from Tasmania Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees 1935 births 2002 deaths {{AFL-bio-1930s-stub