Ross William Glendinning (born 17 September 1956) 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 for the

East Perth Football Club The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club based in Leederville, Western Australia, current playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Formed in 1902 as the Union Football Club, the club ...

in the

West Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WANFL) and for the

North Melbourne Football Club The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Kangaroos also ...

and the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

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). Solidly built but agile and skilful in equal measure, Glendinning was considered one of the finest key-position players of his era. Inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 2000, he was West Coast's inaugural captain. The

Ross Glendinning Medal Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...

is named in his honour and is awarded to the player judged best afield in the

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

n derby between West Coast and

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

each AFL season.

Playing career

Glendinning started his senior football career with

East Perth East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from ...

in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). He joined under the

father–son rule The father–son rule is a rule that allows clubs preferential recruiting access to the sons of players who have made a major past contribution to the club in Australian rules football, most notably in the Australian Football League. The rule ...

, his father Gus having played 69 games for the ''Royals'' from 1941 to 1951. Ross played 56 games for East Perth from 1974 to 1977. He joined North Melbourne in 1978, after being denied a clearance from East Perth in 1977. He twice 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 and in 1983, winning 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 ...

after finishing second the previous year. Strongly built, he could play at

centre half-forward In Australian rules football, the centre half-forward is a position on the half-forward line of a football field. The directly opposing player is a centre half-back. Royce Hart of the Richmond Football Club and Wayne Carey of the North Melbourne ...

or centre half-back. When was formed in 1986, Glendinning returned to his home state and was appointed the club's inaugural captain. Playing mainly at centre half-forward, he was the club's leading goal kicker in 1987 and 1988.

Post-football career

Following retirement, Glendinning was an expert commentator for Channel 7 from 1989 till 1998 while also serving as a panelist on the sportsworld football panel. In March 2000, while serving as 's match committee chairman, Glendinning attracted attention for making remarks on television claiming 's star full-forward

Matthew Lloyd Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's AFL's honours include ...

was suspect under physical pressure. Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy showed a video of the interview to his players in the lead-up to the match at

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood. Subiaco Oval was the high ...

. For the record, Essendon won the match by 36 points and would go on to claim the premiership at the end of the season, losing only one game along the way. In recent years, Glendinning returned to the

as corporate relations manager.

Honours

Glendinning has been inducted into the WA Hall of Champions (1994), the

(2000), the WA Football Hall of Fame (2004) and the North Melbourne Hall of Fame (2012). He was named at centre half-back in the North Melbourne Football Club's Team of the Century. In addition, the

is named in his honour and is awarded to the player judged best afield in the West Australian derby between West Coast and Fremantle each AFL season. He was the coach of the

Western Australia Australian rules football team The Western Australia Australian rules football team is the state representative side of Western Australia in the sport of Australian rules football. Western Australia has a proud history in interstate football, having a successful historical ...

in the 1996 and 1997

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

matches against South Australia and The Allies, losing both games.

Personal life

Glendinning is married to Kerry and has three daughters.

References

External links

* *
Profile
at WA Football Hall of Fame website
AFL Hall of Fame - Players
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glendinning, Ross 1956 births Living people East Perth Football Club players West Coast Eagles players North Melbourne Football Club players Syd Barker Medal winners Brownlow Medal winners All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Western Australian State of Origin players Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees People educated at Scotch College, Perth Australia international rules football team players