Francis Charles "Frank" Johnson (3 July 1932 – 9 July 2016) 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 for the South Melbourne Football Club 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) and

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...

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).

Career

A 185 cm ruckman, Johnson began his senior career playing with Port Melbourne in the VFA in the 1950s. He won a record five best and fairest awards at Port Melbourne, in an era where the team reached eight consecutive grand finals (winning only once). He won the J. J. Liston Trophy for his efforts during the 1952 season and twice earned

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, 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-perf ...

selection: the first time was in the 1953 Adelaide Carnival where he was named in what was the inaugural All-Australian team, and he was selected as captain in the 1956 Perth Carnival team. He was the only VFA player to be twice selected, and the only to be selected as captain, in the All-Australian team. After eight seasons with Port Melbourne, Johnson moved to the

South Warrnambool Football Club The South Warrnambool Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Roosters'', is an Australian rules football and netball club which competes in the Hampden Football League. It is based in the regional Victorian city of Warrnambool and have played ...

in the

Hampden Football League The Hampden Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league based in South-Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns along or near the Princes Highway from Camperdown to Portland. The league is a major country ...

, where he was playing coach in 1958 and 1959. In 1960, at the age of 29, he joined VFL club South Melbourne. He had immediate success by winning the club's best and fairest, and finishing fourth in the

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 ...

count the following year.

Honours

Johnson is widely acknowledged as one of the VFA's all-time star players. In 2007, Johnson was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

; excluding players from the era before the VFL broke away from the VFA in 1897, he was the first inductee ever to have his VFA career acknowledged in his Hall of Fame citation, and until Ron Todd's induction in 2017 was the only inductee who played the majority of his career in the VFA. The Frank Johnson Medal, named in his honour, is awarded by the

to its best player in each interstate representative match. He was named as captain of the Port Melbourne Team of the Century.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Frank 1932 births 2016 deaths All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Bob Skilton Medal winners J. J. Liston Trophy winners Port Melbourne Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club coaches Sydney Swans players South Warrnambool Football Club players South Warrnambool Football Club coaches