Norm Smith

Smith and elder brother Len (b. 1912) were the sons of ironworker Victor Smith and Ethel May (née Brown).

After attending Westgarth Central School, Smith completed an engineering apprenticeship and worked at Millers rope-works in Brunswick.

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, including a fifteen-year stint at Melbourne.

A Legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Smith is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential coaches in the game's history, as well as being one of the finest full-forwards of his era.

Like legendary Collingwood coach Jock McHale, Smith could take young players of different backgrounds and mould them into a disciplined team.

Along with his brother Len, Smith's ability to think innovatively when it came to tactics had a profound influence on the game, most notably through his protégé Ron Barassi.

Melbourne were ambitiously rebuilding their side and Smith made his debut under legendary coach Frank 'Checker' Hughes in 1935.

Ironically, while Norm's career blossomed at Melbourne, brother Len failed to nail down a regular place and he moved to the VFA and later to Fitzroy to further his career.

The Melbourne team was rising fast: they played finals in 1936 and 1937, but lost to more experienced opponents both times.

Smith became a regular in the first team in 1937.

Usually playing as full-forward, Smith quickly developed an understanding with teammate Ron Baggott and earned a reputation as a cool-headed, "thinking" player.

He favoured the pass to a man in a better position, the quick handball, the tap on and the shepherd for a teammate with the ball.

One scribe commented that he "could make a forward line work around him" and he was the epitome of a team player.

The team took a step back in 1938, finishing fifth, but looked the team most likely throughout 1939.

Under Hughes, a successful former Richmond player and coach, Melbourne had remade themselves into a more professional outfit, after many years as an amateur club.

Smith was one of many talented players who adhered to Hughes' doctrine.

Now renamed the Red Demons (later to become simply the Demons), Melbourne went into the 1939 finals with a team based on all-out attack, with Smith the linchpin.

In the Grand Final against Collingwood, Melbourne booted a record Grand Final score and set a new record winning margin, taking only their third premiership in 39 years.

On 19 October 1940, he married Marjorie Victoria Ellis, at the Wesley Church in Melbourne.

Another flag was won in 1940 when Smith was the star, scoring seven goals in the Grand Final.

The following year, the team marked themselves as a special combination by completing the hattrick, despite missing players due to war service and injury on Grand Final day.

Smith enjoyed his most productive season and finished the year as the VFL's leading goalkicker.

He continued playing during the war years in a decimated Melbourne team.

In 1943, he took over his father's engineering business in Northcote, later relocating it to North Coburg in 1954.

In 1944 Smith won The Herald newspaper's best player award.

Smith was appointed captain of the club in 1945, leading the Demons to their first Grand Final defeat in 1946.

Their only child, Peter, was born in 1947.

A brilliant all-round sportsman in his youth, Smith played first-grade district cricket and Australian football.

His first club football was for Dennis, which played in the sub-district competition, where his brother Len had started his career.

When scouts for VFL club Melbourne arrived at the Smith household to sign Len, Victor Smith suggested that young Norm might make the grade as well.

Poor form and a loss of confidence led to Smith resigning the captaincy for 1948 and it seemed that, at 32, his career was winding down.

Melbourne were thrashed by Essendon in the second semi final and were long odds to win the premiership.

However, in something of a miracle, previously retired champion Jack Mueller was recalled to the team and in the next three games (which included a tied and replayed Grand Final) Smith and Mueller combined to dominate the scoring and lead the Demons to an unlikely premiership.

Deciding that it was a perfect note on which to end his marathon career, 'Checker' Hughes retired as coach, and Smith was a keen applicant for the position.

Disappointingly for Smith, the committee decided (by a single vote) to award the job to ex-Melbourne premiership skipper, Allan LaFontaine.

Anxious to begin coaching, Smith made an emotionally difficult decision to transfer to Fitzroy as captain-coach.

Smith played in four premierships with Melbourne and then coached the club to six further premierships in the 1950s and 1960s, but his sensational sacking midway through the 1965 season (when Melbourne were the reigning premiers) gave rise to what is known as the "Curse of Norm Smith".

The supposed curse lasted 57 years until Melbourne defeated the Western Bulldogs in the 2021 AFL Grand Final.

In 1996, Smith was chosen as the coach of the AFL Team of the Century.