George James Prince (21 May 1918 – 3 September 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 ...

er who played for the

East Fremantle Football Club The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team's home ground is East Fremantle Oval. East Fremantle are the ...

in the

Western Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WANFL) between 1939 and 1952. He was the leading goalkicker in the league for the 1949 season, and won premierships in 1945 and 1946.

Biography

Prince was born in East Fremantle and began his career with the nearby

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second ...

Juniors. He made his senior debut for Old Easts in round three of the 1939 season, starting out as a

back pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

. He was switched to a

forward pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

the following week and kicked six goals. Prince stood 178 cm (5 foot 10), a little taller than the average footballer of his age, and was versatile enough to play in virtually every position on the ground, which he did at some point in his career. Prince missed three seasons (1942, 1943, 1944) due to the war, but played in a premiership in his first full season back ( 1945 WANFL season). He added a second premiership medal the following year, kicking five goals in the grand final despite breaking three ribs in the preceding game. This uncapped a rare undefeated season for East Fremantle.Hall of Fame
/ref> 40 goals from 19 games was enough to make Prince East Fremantle's leading goalkicker in 1947. Increasingly being stationed at

centre half-forward In Australian rules football, the centre half-forward is a position on the half-forward line of a football field. The directly opposing player is a centre half-back. Royce Hart of the Richmond Football Club and Wayne Carey of the North Melbour ...

full-forward Full-forward is a position in Australian rules football and Gaelic football with a key focus on kicking goals. The Coleman Medal is awarded to the player, often a full-forward, who has kicked the most goals in an Australian Football League se ...

, he kicked 87 goals from 19 games in

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

to become the league leading goalkicker, taking over from the legendary

George Doig George Ronald Doig (25 May 1913 – 27 November 2006) was an Australian rules footballer who played for and later coached the East Fremantle Football Club in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). A member of the Doig sport ...

as the club's best forward. Prince bettered himself with 90 goals in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...

, but was eclipsed by

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

's Ron Tucker for the overall gong with 115 goals. In both of those seasons, Prince kicked 10 goals in home games against Swan Districts at

Fremantle Oval Fremantle Oval, also known by naming rights sponsorship as Fremantle Community Bank Oval, is a stadium in the centre of Fremantle, Western Australia, located on Parry Street. It currently has a capacity of 17,500 with terracing and a members ...

.WAFL Footy Facts
/ref> Prince spent his last two seasons (

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

) at full-back, covering a team weak spot. His last 158 games between July 1945 and September 1952 were played consecutively, a club record. At state level, Prince made his debut for Western Australia in 1946, and kicked eight goals from six total games (including three games at the 1947 Australian National Carnival). He kicked two goals against

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

from a forward pocket to help his team to a rare four-point victory; however, a WA loss to South Australia and a Victorian flogging of the same team meant that Victoria still went on to win the carnival.State Games 1904 – 1950
/ref> Prince became a successful businessman after retiring from football, becoming a director of a large shipping company. He painted his 26-vessel fleet in the club colours of blue and white. Prince was made an East Fremantle life member in 1952, and in 1997 was named at centre-half-forward in the East Fremantle Team of the Century. He was posthumously inducted in to the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise and enshrine those who have made a significant contribution to Australian rules football in Western Australia. People eligible for inclusion are players, coaches, umpires, ...

in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, George 1918 births 2002 deaths East Fremantle Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Fremantle West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees