Norman Leslie Goss (6 June 1915 – 17 March 1983) 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 ...

administrator who was heavily involved with the

Port Melbourne Football Club The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne. The club was founded in 1874 and has been competing in the Victorian Football Association/Leag ...

and

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 ...

throughout his career. He was also a player at Port Melbourne and .

Playing career

Goss played his earlier football for

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 ...

in the

, having made his debut in 1937. He finished his VFA career with 85 games, but it would have been more had the league not gone into recess during the second world war. As a result, he spent two seasons in the VFL with Hawthorn, playing five games in 1942 and a further three in 1943. Goss won premierships with Port Melbourne in 1940 and 1941.

Administration

After leaving Hawthorn, Goss continued playing at Port Melbourne until taking up the role of club secretary in 1947, in which he was highly influential. He remained in this role until 1976 and was then the VFA's vice-president through to 1981. From 1981 to 1983 he served as Port Melbourne's president. In the infamous

1967 VFA Grand Final The 1967 VFA Division 1 Grand Final was an Australian rules football match played between the Dandenong Redlegs and the Port Melbourne Borough. The match was held on Sunday 24 September 1967 at the Punt Road Oval in Jolimont, Melbourne, to deci ...

, during his time as secretary, Goss is known to have intervened to stop captain-coach Brian Buckley sending his team off the field to protest against the umpiring. Following Goss' death in March 1983, the VFA established the

Norm Goss Memorial Medal The Norm Goss Memorial Medal is awarded to the player judged to be the best afield 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 r ...

, which has been awarded annually since 1983, to the best player afield in the VFA/VFL grand final. In the 1970s, the main grandstand of

North Port Oval North Port Oval, also known as the Port Melbourne Cricket Ground or by the sponsored name ETU Stadium, is an Australian rules football and cricket stadium located in Port Melbourne, Australia. The capacity of the venue is 6,000 people. It is ho ...

's home ground, was named the "Norman L Goss Stand" in his honour.

Family

One of his sons, also named

Norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

, would likewise start his career at Port Melbourne and play league football for Hawthorn, in addition to South Melbourne. Two more sons,

Kevin Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an ...

and

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

, played for South Melbourne and Melbourne respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goss Sr, Norm 1915 births Hawthorn Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club players Port Melbourne Football Club administrators VFA/VFL administrators Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) 1983 deaths