George Jeremiah Patrick O'Mullane (3 December 1842 – 20 December 1866) was an Australian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er. Born and raised in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria, O'Mullane was a standout cricketer from an early age, and came to be regarded as his colony's premier

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

. During the winter months, he excelled as a footballer in the nascent Australian game, receiving praise for his courage and strength. O'Mullane's promising career was cut short when he died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, aged 24.

Family and early years

O'Mullane was born in

on 3 December 1842, of Anglo-Celtic descent. He was one of five siblings. His father, Dr. Arthur O'Mullane of

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

, Ireland, graduated as a

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

in 1838. The following year, he arrived in Australia's

Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...

aboard the ''William Metcalfe'' on 15 November, along with Miss Maria Elizabeth Barber, formerly of Keyingham near Hull,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, whom he married in 1840. They settled in Melbourne, and Arthur established himself as a leading physician in the fledgling port city, taking up government and medical positions, and was one of the first honorary physicians elected to the Melbourne Hospital. He took up land speculation and became part-owner of the '' Port Phillip Gazette'' in the 1840s, and in 1852, purchased the

Bourke Street Bourke Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district and a core feature of the Hoddle Grid. It was traditionally the entertainment hub of inner-city Melbourne, and is now also a popular tourist destination and tr ...

residence of Sir Redmond Barry, the famous Supreme Court Judge and founder of the

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

. Around this time, Elizabeth O'Mullane and her children, including George, were depicted in a family portrait by colonial artist William Strutt, now held at the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

. George, along with his brother Arthur, attended the

Melbourne Grammar School Melbourne Grammar School is an Australian private school, private Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Day school, day and boarding school. It comprises a co-educational preparatory school from Prep to Year 6 and a middle school and senior s ...

, and each successively captained the school's cricket team. One of their classmates, John Conway, also excelled at cricket, and would go on to play for Victoria alongside George.Victoria v New South Wales in 1865/66
CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 May 2016.

Cricket

O'Mullane joined the East Melbourne Cricket Club, which he went on to regularly captain, and was soon recognised as Victoria's premier

. In 1861, while still a student at Melbourne Grammar School, O'Mullane represented Victoria against H. H. Stephenson's XI, the first

English cricket team The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

to tour Australia. It was during these matches against the English that O'Mullane's abilities as a cricketer were first widely recognised, and it was remarked that he played "as coolly as a veteran.""Cricket. The Past Season"
''The Australasian'' (Melbourne). 15 June 1867. p. 12. Retrieved 3 May 2016. O'Mullane was reported as being "up country" when George Parr's

All-England Eleven In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against ...

was in Melbourne during the 1863–64 season, and therefore missed out on playing against the tourists. When several professional members of the Victoria XI defected to

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

ahead of the December 1865 intercolonial match between the two colonies, O'Mullane was selected to play for Victoria at the insistence of its captain,

Tom Wills Thomas Wentworth Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of Colo ...

. O'Mullane put in a career-best performance behind the wickets and ended on 33

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

in a thrilling

partnership A partnership is an agreement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments or combinations. Organizations ...

with Wills, who scored the first

half century This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cr ...

in intercolonial cricket (58), leading Victoria to an against-the-odds win. It was to be O'Mullane's solitary first-class appearance. O'Mullane played in his last club cricket match in October 1866. A left-handed batsman, O'Mullane played without any pretense to style according to cricketer and journalist

William Hammersley William Josiah Sumner Hammersley (25 September 1826 – 15 November 1886) was an English-born first-class cricketer and sports journalist in Victoria, Australia, one of the four men credited with setting down the original rules of Australian ru ...

, but "was a hard, determined hitter ... a very fast run-getter, and fond of taking liberties with the bowling." He was not the most elegant wicket-keeper, but "hard as nails", unflinching and equally good on the

leg side The leg side, also called the on side, is a particular half of a cricket field. A cricket field may be notionally divided into two halves, by an imaginary line running down the middle of the pitch, through the middle stumps, and out to the bou ...

as on the off. Though he could successfully keep wicket for all types of bowlers, he had a perceived preference for pacemen."The Cricketers of Victoria: George O'Mullane"
''The Australasian'' (Melbourne). 23 June 1866. p. 11. Retrieved 3 March 2016. As a captain, wrote ''

The Australasian The ''Australasian Post'', commonly called the ''Aussie Post'', was Australia's longest-running weekly picture magazine. History and profile Its origins are traceable to Saturday, 3 January 1857, when the first issue of ''Bell's Life in Victori ...

'', O'Mullane was prone to causing disputes with an "energy of character" that was not always "tempered by tact and discretion". At his club, East Melbourne, he was considered "a bit of a ' martinet' ... but all the same a real good skipper."

Football

In August 1858, O'Mullane played for Melbourne Grammar against Scotch College in what is claimed by some to be the first match of

. This 40-a-side contest, played over three consecutive Saturdays on the Richmond Paddock next to the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

, ended in a draw with each team scoring one goal. One spectator recalled: While O'Mullane represented several football clubs during his career (as was common in those days), including St Kilda and

, he is most often associated with

South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a populati ...

. Apart from being a standout player, O'Mullane also worked as a club administrator and umpired matches between other teams. In May 1866, when the code was updated at a meeting of eight club delegates chaired by H. C. A. Harrison, O'Mullane was one of two players appointed to represent South Yarra. In September of that year, in his last match, he captained the club to victory against Melbourne to gain permanent possession of the

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

. The club's fortunes declined soon after his death four months later and South Yarra folded at the start of 1873, having not won a match since 1868. O'Mullane "loved nothing more than a rough, tough, energetic game", and it was said that only Tom Wills could match his "pluck and skill" as a footballer. According to a teammate, O'Mullane's reputation as a first-rate boxer was enough to dissuade the opposition from getting into melees with his club. Harrison remembered O'Mullane as a strong, but good-tempered player, and stated that "it was a pleasure to meet him on the football field—even when the meeting was shoulder to shoulder, and you happened to get the trifle worst of it." O'Mullane was retrospectively named a " Champion of the Colony" for 1861 in early football historian C. C. Mullen's subjective season-by-season ranking of players, and in ''The Australian Game of Football Since 1858'' (2008), published by the AFL, he was placed among the five best players of the 1860s. There have been calls for O'Mullane to be inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

, along with other "neglected heroes" of the game's pioneering phase.

Death

O'Mullane died of

at his East Melbourne residence on 20 December 1866, aged twenty-four. His obituary in ''The Australasian'' remembered him as "undoubtedly the best wicket-keeper Victoria has produced", and stated that "it would be difficult to name his superior t footballin the colony"."Death of Mr. George O'Mullane"
''The Australasian'' (Melbourne). 29 December 1866. p. 5. Retrieved 3 May 2016. William Hammersley agreed:

References

Bibliography