Gordon Donald Collis (born 6 November 1940) is a former

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 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 ...

. Recruited from

Healesville Healesville is a town in Victoria, Australia, 52 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Healesville recorded a population of 7,589 in the 2021 census. He ...

, Collis played less than 100 games of VFL football, but his place in history is assured as a winner of one of the game's highest honours – 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 ...

. Collis won the medal in 1964 with 27 votes, although the

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 ...

had its worst finish in the VFL at the time, ending the season in 10th position. Wearing number 17 for the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

between 1961 and 1967 (playing 95 games and booting 40 goals), the red-haired Collis played primarily at

centre half-back In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-back line refers to the positions of the 3 players on the field that occupy the centre half-back and left and right half-back flank positions. Centre half-back The role of the centre half-back ...

before injuries forced his retirement. Collis credited his optician with the Brownlow win, as in 1963 he struggled to see the ball and ''"All the other chaps would be coming down as I started to go up."'' This was rectified with

contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

es, resulting in a much improved 1964. Collis became Carlton's second Medallist in four years, following John James who won in 1961.

References

1940 births Living people Carlton Football Club players Brownlow Medal winners John Nicholls Medal winners Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) {{AFL-bio-1940s-stub