Allan Robert Charles McLean (1 February 1914 – 9 November 1989) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Port Adelaide and Norwood in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as t ...

(SANFL) and St Kilda 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). Affectionately referred to as "Big Bob" McLean, he later became a long-serving football administrator in South Australia. He was also a good cricketer, representing

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

in the

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...

and topped the Australian bowling and batting averages in 1947. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

1983 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1983 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

for service to sport.

Football career

As a player, McLean was mainly a ruckman but was also handy around goals, kicking 471 of them during his 221-game SANFL career. He started out at Norwood before crossing to Port Adelaide and participating in their 1939 premiership win. On four occasions he topped Port Adelaide's goal-kicking – 1940, 1941, 1947 and 1948. His tally of 80 goals in 1947 was enough to win him the league's leading goal-kicker award. He also represented

in nine interstate matches over the course of his career. While on military service in Melbourne, he made three appearances for St Kilda in the

1941 VFL season The 1941 VFL season was the 45th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 26 April until 27 September, and comprised an ...

Cricket career

McLean, a right-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler, appeared in 20

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

matches for his state. He made 897 first-class runs at an average of 28.93 and took 65 wickets at 38.36. Both of his two first-class hundreds were scored in a one-week period in the

, towards the end of December 1949. The first was an innings of 213 which he made opening the batting against

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

at the

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby le ...

, dwarfing his team's next-highest score of 45. Just two days after that match ended, South Australia met

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 ...

at the Melbourne Cricket Ground—and McLean, opening the batting once more, scored 135 and again outshone his teammates with the next-best effort being 31. Victoria's bowling lineup consisted of

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cricketer

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as well as future Test players

Jack Hill Jack Hill (born January 28, 1933) is an American film director in the exploitation film genre. Several of Hill's later films have been characterized as feminist works. Early life Hill was born in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Mildred (n� ...

and

Jack Iverson John Brian Iverson (27 July 1915 – 23 October 1973), was an Australian cricketer who played in five Test cricket, Test matches from 1950 to 1951. He was known for his unique "bent finger" grip, with which he briefly perplexed batsmen across ...

. In his district career with Port Adelaide from 1939 to 1954, he scored over 5000 runs and took more than 500 wickets. His first name, Allan, is given on cricket scorecards instead of Bob.

Football administration

He was appointed Club Secretary of Port Adelaide in 1949 and remained in the job until 1980. From 1983 to 1989 he was Club Chairman. McLean was also a SANFL League Director for 29 years and state selector for 17 years. As a Port Adelaide administrator, Bob McLean earned a formidable reputation of making it exceptionally difficult for Victorian clubs to pry away the club's star players. A particularly famous incident in the 1970s involved 's attempt to obtain John Cahill. Bob McLean said that this was fair game but that he would "get the next flight to Melbourne and speak to

Carl Ditterich Carl Robert Ditterich (born 10 October 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also coached Melbourne for two years, as a ...

(St Kilda's then captain)" if it were to happen. St Kilda reportedly cancelled their visit.

Legacy

In 2007, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Five years earlier he had been one of the inaugural inductees in the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

. The A. R. McLean Medal is awarded to the best-and-fairest winner for the Port Adelaide Football Club side in the SANFL each year. His son Ian also played first-class cricket for South Australia as a batsman, playing 25 matches and scoring two centuries – against Western Australia (103 not out) and Tasmania (111).

References

External links

*
Cricinfo: Bob McLean
*Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. {{DEFAULTSORT:McLean, Bob 1914 births 1989 deaths St Kilda Football Club players Norwood Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Port Adelaide Football Club administrators South Australian National Football League administrators Australian cricketers South Australia cricketers Cricketers from Adelaide Australian rules footballers from Adelaide South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire