Fred Goldsmith
Personal information
Date of birth (1932-08-20)20 August 1932
Date of death 13 April 2017(2017-04-13) (aged 84)
Original team(s) Spotswood (FDFL)
Height 183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 83 kg (183 lb)
Position(s) Full-back, full-forward
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1951–1959 South Melbourne 119 (107)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1959.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Fred Goldsmith (20 August 1932 – 13 April 2017)[1] was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Goldsmith as a seventeen year old in 1950, once kicked 29 goals in a match for Spotswood against Kingsville in the Footscray District Football League.[2] His club was zoned to South Melbourne.

VFL career

A fireman, Goldsmith started his career in 1951 as a half forward flanker, having been recruited by South Melbourne from Spotswood.

In 1952, he was shifted to fullback; and, in 1955, he became the first ever (and so far, only) specialist fullback to win the Brownlow Medal.[3]

To the astonishment of all, in 1956, South Melbourne decided to play its 1955 Brownlow Medallist fullback at full-forward. He played at full-forward for the remainder of his career. In 1957, he was South Melbourne's leading goalkicker with 43 goals.

Post VFL career

At 27 years of age, he was appointed as captain-coach of the Albury Football Club, in the Ovens & Murray Football League and coached them from 1960 to 1965 and kicked 270 goals in that time.[4]

Goldsmith led the O&MFL goalkicking in 1964 with 81 goals for the season.

In 1966 he played nine games with Port Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football Association.

Goldsmith's 1955 Brownlow Medal attained $43,700 at an auction of sporting memorabilia conducted by Christie's on 17 April 2000.[5]

He was selected as an interchange player in the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans's "Team of the Century"' announced on 8 August 2003.

In a 1958 competition, held at the Lake Oval, Goldsmith kicked a drop kick that travelled (80 yd 1 ft; 241 ft; 73 m).[6]

Fred Goldsmith has five children, 16 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren

References

  1. ↑ "Vale Fred Goldsmith: Brownlow winner dies at 84". AFL.com.au. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  2. ↑ "Bulldogs who became Swans". Sporting Globe. No. 4240. Victoria, Australia. 24 June 1953. p. 4. Retrieved 27 March 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ Jim Main, Aussie Rules: For Dummies (2nd edition, 2008) p 72.
  4. ↑ "Fred Goldsmith in Retrospect". The Footy Almanac. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  5. ↑ "Brownlow trivia". Footystats.freeservers.com. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  6. ↑ "Long kicks and the men who made them". Footystats.freeservers.com. Retrieved 13 April 2017.


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