George Mervyn Dougherty (9 December 1913 – 21 November 1991) 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 four clubs 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) from

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

Family

The son of Cahir Dougherty (1878-1958), and Helen Mary "Nellie" Dougherty (1885-1951), née Smeaton, George Mervyn Dougherty was born at

Beulah, Victoria Beulah is a town in the southern Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Yarriambiack local government area, 395 kilometres north-west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2016 census, Beulah had a population ...

on 9 December 1913. His brother, Noel Dougherty (1916-), tried out with Carlton (in 1933), Fitzroy (in 1935), and Geelong (in 1937), and another brother, Lyle Dougherty (1926-2015), tried out with South Melbourne (in 1950). He married Verlie Norma Clifford (1921-1991) in 1941.

Football

Carlton (VFL)

A ruckman who also played up forward, recruited from the Beulah Football Club in the

Southern Mallee Football League The Southern Mallee Football League (SMFL) was an Australian rules football competition that finished in 1996 based in the Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. The league featured three grades in the Australian rules football competition, bei ...

, Dougherty started his VFL career with

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Mel ...

Geelong (VFL)

After two and a half seasons with Carlton, he transferred to

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

where he would play his best football. Dougherty was a key member of Geelong's

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

premiership winning side, kicking 38 goals for the year and was the starting ruckman in their

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

win over Collingwood. In

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

he polled well 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 ...

, finishing equal seventh.

Footscray (VFL)

Dougherty moved to Footscray in

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...

, when Geelong were unable to compete in the 1942 and 1943 VFL competitions, due to wartime restrictions on travel.

Geelong (VFL)

He returned to Geelong in 1944, when the team resumesd its place in the VFL competition, due to the earlier travel restrictions being relaxed.

South Melbourne (VFL)

Dougherty spent a year at

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

in the 1945 season, before retiring due to the broken ankle he sustained when playing against Hawthorn in the last home-and-away match of the 1945 season.

Death

He died at

, Victoria, on 21 November 1991.''findagrave.com''.

Notes

References

George Mervyn Dougherty, at ''findagrave.com''.

External links

* *
George Dougherty, at ''Blueseum''.
1913 births Carlton Football Club players Geelong Football Club players Geelong Football Club Premiership players Sydney Swans players Western Bulldogs players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 1991 deaths One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players {{AFL-bio-1913-stub