Martin Joseph McDonnell (28 December 1920 – 22 December 2005) 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 Footscray 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 born in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Recruited from West Footscray, McDonnell was a defender, used often at full-back. He was only a regular in the team after the war, having missed the entire 1942, 1943 and 1945 seasons due to service in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. From 1947 to 1949, McDonnell missed just three games and he received the equal most votes by a Footscray player in the 1947 Brownlow Medal count. He represented the VFL eight times during his career. He retired after the 1950 season and applied for the job of Footscray coach but after missing out joined

Yarrawonga Yarrawonga is a town in the Shire of Moira local government area in the Australian state of Victoria. The town is situated on the south bank of the Murray River, the border between Victoria and New South Wales, and is located approximately n ...

and coached them in the

Ovens & Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales and the Ovens and Murray are ...

, until 1954. McDonnell was signed by South Fremantle as coach in 1960 and remained in that role for four years to mixed results: the club played finals for the first time in four seasons in 1960 and did so again in 1962, but in 1961 and 1963 the red and whites won just six matches in each season for last and second-last placings, so that his contract was not renewed after 1963 in favour of

Ray Sorrell Ray George Sorrell (born 1 January 1938) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with East Fremantle and South Fremantle in the West Australian National Football League (WANFL). A centreman, Sorrell achieved many accolades during h ...

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McDonnell, Marty 1920 births 2005 deaths VFL/AFL players born outside Australia Western Bulldogs players South Fremantle Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) West Footscray Football Club players New Zealand emigrants to Australia