Gregory George Sewell (born 30 June 1933) 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, assistant coach and president for

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

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). He was educated at University High School from 1950 to 1951, where he was a schoolmate of

Allen Aylett Allen James Aylett OBE (24 April 1934 – 16 September 2022) was an Australian rules football player and administrator. He was the chairman/president of the North Melbourne Football Club from 1971 to 1976, and then again from 2001 to 2005. I ...

. He was inducted as an Essendon legend for his contribution to the club which spanned over 4 decades.

Recruit

Sewell was recruited by Essendon from a local side, the Monash Rovers. He was fast, marked well, and could break away from opponents. He played mainly as a wingman or as a half forward flanker; however, he finished his career 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 ...

player. He played in the Thirds (under-19s) and the Seconds (Reserves) until he played his first senior match for Essendon on 19 July 1952, round 13 of the home-and-away season, against Footscray, at Essendon's home ground, Windy Hill. He played on the half-forward flank in the highly talented 1952 Essendon Seconds Premiership team that beat Collingwood Seconds 7.14 (56) to 4.5 (29). All but one, A. Taylor, of the premiership team's 20 players had either already played for the Essendon Firsts or would go on to do so in the future.

Career at Essendon

His senior record with Essendon included seven finals and two losing Grand Finals: *

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 ...

: 7 games. *

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

: 19 games (including losing First Semi-Final team). *

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

: 17 games, 1 goal. *

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

: 19 games, 12 goals (including losing First Semi-Final team). *

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...

: 18 games, 2 goals. *

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

: 18 games, 12 goals (including losing Grand Final team. :*

: one game for the Victorian Interstate Team. *

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

: 18 games, 8 goals. *

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

: 18 games (including losing Grand Final team), 10 goals. *

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

: 19 games (including losing First Semi-Final team). *

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

: 18 games.

After Essendon

He left Essendon at the end of 1961, — he was made a Life Member of the Essendon Football Club in 1961 — and went to play as captain-coach for the

Kyneton Football Club The Kyneton Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Tigers'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in the town of Kyneton, Victoria. Kyneton teams currently compete in the Bendigo Football Netball League. The football squad has ...

in the

Bendigo Football League The Bendigo Football Netball League (previously known as the Sandhurst Football Association, Bendigo and District Football Association, Bendigo Football Association and Bendigo Football League) is an Australian rules football and netball compe ...

from 1962 to 1964.

Further life at Essendon

Sewell returned to Essendon in 1965 and, replacing

Bill Hutchison William Henry Hutchison (28 April 1923 – 18 June 1982), often referred to as "Hutchy", was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League (VFL) with the Essendon Football Club, who played 290 VFL games, from 1942 to 1957, an ...

, worked as both the Reserve Grade coach and the assistant Senior coach (to his mate John Coleman). He held those positions from 1965 to 1968. The Essendon senior side, with Sewell as assistant coach, won the 1965 Premiership: Essendon 14.21 (105) to St Kilda 9.16 (70). Whilst the Essendon senior side, again with Sewell as assistant coach, lost the 1968 Grand Final — Essendon 8.5 (53) to

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

7.14 (56) — Sewell finished his coaching career with a triumph. The Essendon Reserves won the Reserves Grand Final, beating Richmond 15.7 (97) to 13.14 (92), and won the first Reserve Grade Premiership for Essendon in sixteen years (i.e., since the 1952 Essendon Reserve Premiership team in which Sewell had played on the half-forward flank). Sewell also served on the Committee of the Essendon Football Club from 1958 to 1961, and from 1969 to 1975, as well as serving as its Vice-President in 1976, and its President from 1981 to 1987.

After football

Sewell's family have been involved in the foundry business for three generations and Greg was for many years in control of Greg Sewell Forgings Pty Ltd. He was a good mate of John Coleman and was the last person at Essendon to see John Coleman alive.According to Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, (1997, p.130) Coleman, who was also connected with the Rotary Club of Brunswick, and Sewell had spent time together at a Rotary function in

Albury, New South Wales Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the C ...

on the Sunday preceding Coleman's death. In 2001, the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

bestowed a Life Membership on Sewell for his services to Australian Rules Football.

Footnotes

References

* Maplestone, M., ''Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996'', Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. * Miller, W., Petraitis, V. & Jeremiah, V., ''The Great John Coleman'', Nivar Press, (Cheltenham), 1997.

External links

* *
Greg Sewell, at Boyles Football Photos''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sewell, Greg 1933 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club coaches Kyneton Football Club players Essendon Football Club administrators Living people