Michael John Grace (24 July 187421 May 1912) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club,

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of ...

and

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fr ...

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).

Family

The son of Thomas Grace, and Julia Grace, née O'Callaghan, Michael John Grace was born in Burnley, Victoria on 24 July 1874. He was the brother of Fitzroy footballers

Jim Grace Jim Grace (21 September 1868 – 31 December 1938) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the club's early years. His younger brother, Mick Grace, played beside him at Fitzroy. Football Grace joined Fit ...

and Joe Grace. He married Martha Drew in 1903.

Football

Mick Grace was a follower/forward who started his career at the top level in the VFA in 1895 with Fitzroy, joining his older brother Jim. Grace was part of Fitzroy's premiership team in that season (although no Grand Final was played in the VFA at the time). In

1897 Events January–March * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puniti ...

, Fitzroy was one of the eight clubs to form the VFL as a breakaway competition from the VFA, and in 1898 and

1899 Events January 1899 * January 1 ** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. ** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City. * January 2 – **Bolivia sets up a c ...

, Grace was part of back-to-back VFL premierships with the Maroons. He was regarded as the best player on the ground in the 1898 Grand Final. Grace was part of the Maroons' 1900 losing premiership side, then retired from playing.Blueseum Profile. In

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been ...

, influential coach Jack Worrall persuaded Grace to return to the VFL for Carlton. Grace played for Carlton between 1903 and 1907. He won a further two VFL premierships with Carlton (in 1906 and 1907), and in 1906 he kicked 50 goals in a single season, the first VFL player ever to do so. Grace retired from the VFL again halfway through the 1907 season, and was set to play for Brighton in the VFA for the remainder of the season, before Worrall convinced him to return to Carlton for the successful finals campaign. Grace left Carlton again at the end of the 1907 season, and moved to St Kilda where he played 16 games in

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 46 ...

. Altogether throughout his career in Victoria, Grace won five premierships (three with Fitzroy, and two with Carlton). Grace also played four state games for Victoria.

Coach

Grace had a brief coaching career, serving as St Kilda's coach in 1908 while playing and as coach of University in 1910, and later coaching in Sydney.

Cricket

Grace was also a leading junior

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er, representing the Combined Victorian Juniors against the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influenc ...

(MCC) side during MCCs 1903/04 tour.

Death

He had been suffering from tuberculosis for some time. He died of tuberculosis, at Heidelberg, on 21 May 1912.Death of a Famous Footballer, ''The Barrier Miner'', (Monday, 27 May 1912), p.4.
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Footnotes

References

* Atkinson, G. (1982) ''Everything you ever wanted to know about Australian rules football but couldn't be bothered asking'', The Five Mile Press: Melbourne. . * Holmesby, Russell & Main, Jim (2014). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (10th ed.)'', (Melbourne), Bas Publishing.

External links

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Mick Grace
at Blueseum {{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Mick 1874 births 1912 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Carlton Football Club players Carlton Football Club Premiership players Fitzroy Football Club players Fitzroy Football Club Premiership players St Kilda Football Club players St Kilda Football Club coaches Mitchell Medal winners VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal winners Fitzroy Football Club (VFA) players 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Australia Infectious disease deaths in Victoria (Australia) Four-time VFL/AFL Premiership players People from Burnley, Victoria