Gordon Louis Charles 'Sonny' Maffina (10 January 1926 – 10 September 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 114 games for Claremont in the

West 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) from 1948 to 1958. Centreman Gordon Maffina, nicknamed Sonny, arrived at Claremont from Goldfields National Football League club Boulder City. He made an immediate impact at Claremont with a

Sandover Medal The Sandover Medal is an Australian rules football award, given annually since 1921 to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League. The award was donated by Alfred Sandover M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant and be ...

win in 1949 as well as being awarded his club's Best and fairest. He represented Western Australia at the

1950 Brisbane Carnival The 1950 Brisbane Carnival was the 11th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Inter ...

where he was a

Simpson Medal The Simpson Medal is an individual prize awarded for Australian rules football in Western Australia. The medal has been donated by Dr Fred Simpson and family since 1945. Simpson Medals are currently awarded to the following players: *The best pla ...

ilst and appeared in a total of eight interstates matches for his state. Appointed captain-coach of Claremont in 1952 after captaining them the previous year, Maffina remained in the role until the end of the 1953 season. He continued on as a player, returning briefly as captain-coach in 1957, but suffered from niggling injuries towards the end of his career and retired in 1958. When Claremont took out the 1964 premiership he was the assistant coach.

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* Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Claremont Football Club players Sandover Medal winners Claremont Football Club coaches Boulder City Football Club players 1926 births 1991 deaths People from Boulder, Western Australia {{AFL-bio-1920s-stub