Ken Smale (born 5 November 1933) 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, who played 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). Born in Warrnacknabeal Smale played as a forward for the town team and he won the

Wimmera Football League The Wimmera Football League is a major Australian rules country league based in Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns in the Wimmera region: the regional centres along the Western Highway from Ararat to Nhill as well as Minyip-Murtoa ...

goalkicking award in 1952 and 1953. Keen to have a go in the VFL he wrote to Collingwood asking for a try out. He spent the Easter Saturday in Melbourne with a six-game permit in case he was wanted. Collingwood was impressed and he got a clearance. Ken Smale was a forward player in the losing

Grand Finals Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

against

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1955 and 1956 but he was on the bench when Collingwood won the

1958 VFL Grand Final The 1958 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 20 September 1958. It was the 61st annual grand final of the Vic ...

. Smale left Collingwood after the premiership win to return to his hometown of Warracknabeal, finishing with 324 games for the club and winning two premierships. In 2008 Collingwood granted him a life membership.

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* * Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Collingwood Football Club players Collingwood Football Club premiership players Warracknabeal Football Club players 1933 births Living people VFL/AFL premiership players {{AFL-bio-1930s-stub