Jim Cleary (13 July 1914 – 2 May 1993) 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

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

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). Cleary played as a fullback and won two

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

awards for South Melbourne, in 1942 and 1944. He was a highly regarded player, and attracted lucrative offers – an undisclosed amount from

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in 1940, and £400 from

Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...

in 1945 – to cross to the

Victorian Football Association 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 ...

during the throw-pass era, but chose to remain with South Melbourne. Cleary's reputation as a fair player earned him the nickname "Gentleman Jim"; this did not stop him from being suspended for eight matches for a striking offence in the notoriously violent 1945 VFL Grand Final – in an incident team-mate

Laurie Nash Laurence John Nash (2 May 1910 – 24 July 1986) was a Test cricketer and Australian rules footballer. An inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Nash was a member of South Melbourne's 1933 premiership team, captained South Melbo ...

later described as "one of the few honest accidents in the game". He left the club in 1949 and went on to become captain and coach of

club

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populatio ...

; he coached there from 1949 until 1952, leading the club to consecutive minor premierships and Grand Final losses in 1951 and 1952; he then coached at fellow VFA clubs Brunswick (from 1953 until 1958) and

Dandenong Dandenong is a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, about from the Melbourne CBD. It is the council seat of the City of Greater Dandenong local government area, with a recorded population of 30,127 at the . Situated mainly ...

(from 1959 until 1961), coaching a total of 267 VFA games. He remained involved in the game even after retiring as a coach, becoming a regular panelist on World of Sport.

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* * 1914 births 1993 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Sydney Swans players Bob Skilton Medal winners Port Melbourne Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club coaches Brunswick Football Club coaches Dandenong Football Club coaches People from Carlton, Victoria {{AFL-bio-1914-stub