Stuart Spencer (3 February 1932 – 27 September 2011) 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 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) and

Tasmanian Football League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the "Tasmanian Football League (TFL)" (formerly known as the "Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL)" and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian ru ...

(TFL) in the 1950s and 1960s.

VFL

Born in the small country town of

Digby, Victoria Digby is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Glenelg, west of the state capital, Melbourne, on the Stokes River, a tributary of the Glenelg. At the 2006 census, Digby and the surrounding area h ...

, Spencer started his football career with the

Portland Football Netball Cricket Club The Portland Football Netball Cricket Club, nicknamed the ''Tigers'', is an Australian sports club based in the city of Portland, Victoria. The club's football and netball teams currently compete in the Hampden Football Netball League, with t ...

, playing 45 games. He then came to the attention of

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern 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 River, ...

in the VFL, where he started pre-season trialling in 1949. The Geelong coach,

Reg Hickey Reginald Joseph Hickey (27 March 1906 – 13 December 1973) was an Australian rules footballer who was a player, the captain, the captain-coach, and the non-playing coach for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) ...

, moved Spencer on after only two weeks, and he settled at

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Spencer made his League debut in 1950, but his career really took off with the arrival of

Norm Smith Norman Walter Smith (21 November 1915 – 29 July 1973) was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After more than 200 games as a player with and , Smith began a twenty-year coaching career, inc ...

as coach of Melbourne for the 1952 season. Spencer is quoted as saying that Smith told him: "'Stuey, there is time for you to go back to

back pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

when you're 35', so he launched me into my role as rover." Spencer became an integral part of what was to become the most highly successful part of the history of the Melbourne club. His contemporaries included prominent players of that era –

Ron Barassi Ronald Dale Barassi Jr. (born 27 February 1936) is a former Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality. Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the game, Barassi was the first player to be inaugurated into ...

, Brian Dixon, (Frank) 'Bluey' Truscott, Johnny Beckwith. He was recognised as an outstanding player, winning back-to-back

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 ...

awards for Melbourne in the premiership years of 1955 and 1956, as well as being the club leading goalkicker in 1955. In the 1956 Grand Final he kicked five goals in a best on ground performance.

TFL

It was thus highly surprising that, at the peak of his VFL career, Spencer moved to Tasmania and became captain-coach of

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

in the

in 1957. Although several sources say that he moved due to business reasons, Spencer has stated that the primary reasons for his move was that his wife Fay was eight months pregnant with their first child and wanted to move to her native Tasmania for family support. Spencer brought a tough and disciplined style of football to Tasmania. He won two TFL best and fairest awards (

William Leitch Medal The William Leitch Medal, named after the highly regarded former Australian rules player and Tasmanian Football Administrator William Douglas Leitch (1863-1943), was an annual award which was presented to the best and fairest player in the TANFL ...

) and also twice won the Lefroy medal for best and fairest Tasmanian player in interstate matches. He is credited with bringing Clarence up to a standard where they would eventually go on to be one of the most successful of Tasmanian clubs. His Tasmanian playing career reached its peak when he captained the Tasmanian state side to its first ever victory over arch-rival

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, in 1960 at Launceston. He was adjudged best-on-ground and kicked the game-sealing score.

Other

Spencer's coaching did not stop with Clarence, he also coached St. Virgil's College to three successive state independent school's premierships. Spencer was president of the Clarence Football Club for two terms and was a member of the board of management in 1979. Spencer was president of the Melbourne Football Club from 1986 to 1991, overseeing their first Grand Final appearance for 24 years in 1988. At age 74 Spencer still worked as the managing director of the Greens Group, a

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

removals and storage company. Spencer died in Melbourne aged 79.

References

External links

* *
"Icing on the cake for Spencer" AFL website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Stuart 1932 births 2011 deaths Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Melbourne Football Club players Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy winners William Leitch Medal winners Clarence Football Club players Clarence Football Club coaches All-Australians (1953–1988) Melbourne Football Club presidents Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Portland Football Club players Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees Melbourne Football Club Premiership players Two-time VFL/AFL Premiership players