Leonard Joseph White (26 August 1922 – 29 August 2010) was an Australian rules footballer who played with

Geelong Geelong ( ) ( Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon ...

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). I ...

(VFL).

Early career

Born in Camperdown, White was one of eleven born to Eugene and Ellen White (née Nolan). White started his senior career at the Camperdown Football Club, in the Hampden Football League. One of four brothers in the Camperdown team, White won the club's

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 ...

award in 1946, as a full-back.

Geelong

White was used mostly as a half back by Geelong, which he joined in 1947. In his debut season he made 17 appearances and was described by Jim Blake of the ''Sporting Globe'' as one of the "best recruits" that season. At the end of the season he won Geelong's award for the "best first year player". It was noted in '' The Argus'' that there was confusion at 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 ...

count that year when a vote was awarded to "White, Geelong", which could also have been for his teammate Lindsay White. He played 15 league games in 1948, his second and final season in the VFL.

Coach of Camperdown

White returned to Camperdown in 1949 as the new coach. He went on to coach Camperdown to a premiership in 1951, secured with a 31-point grand final win over Cobden. His on field performances that season won him a third successive club best and fairest. Although he retired in 1952, White came back as coach the following year, when his replacement Bob Kelsey was unable to get a clearance from

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...

. In the opening round of the 1953 season, White suffered a broken leg, which would keep him out for the rest of the year, so he stood aside as coach, allowing the club to recruit former Carlton premiership player

Ritchie Green Ritchie Green (17 September 1925 – 19 March 1999) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Carlton and South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league ...

. During the 1953 season, a seventh White brother joined Camperdown.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Len 1922 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Geelong Football Club players Camperdown Football Club players Camperdown Football Club coaches 2010 deaths