Almanac Books: ‘It’s in the Genes’ – Machine Team Siblings: Part 3 – The Coventrys

 

Des Tobin was a guest speaker at the recent Footy Almanac Lunch and presented an indepth and enthralling account of some of the footballing families included in his recently released book. The Collingwood Football Club has had its fair share of  champion families representing their club such as the Murphys, the Colliers, and the Coventrys, and we were extremely fortunate to gain some wonderful insights from Richard Collier, son of Harry Collier and nephew of Albert Collier about these Magpie greats at the lunch. 

 

As a follow up, Des has kindly allowed The Footy Almanac to published an extract from his book – the chapter entitled ‘Machine Team: Siblings’ a look at  three sets of brothers from the 1920/30s. We will publish the extract in three parts over the coming week; Part 1: Frank and Len Murphy, Part 2: Harry and Albert ‘Leeter’ Collier, and Part 3: The Coventry Family.

 

Full details for purchase of Des’ book can be found Here

 

‘MACHINE TEAM’

 

SIBLINGS

 

Part 3

 

 

Syd and Gordon ‘Nuts’ Coventry

 

Diamond Creek is approximately 23 kilometres north-east of central Melbourne. Its first European inhabitants were timber cutters and paling splitters. During the mid-1850s, gold seekers began working diggings in the area, and the discovery of the rich ‘Diamond Reef’ in 1863 resulted in substantial goldmining activities, the formation of the Diamond Creek township, an influx of settlers and the opening up of the land to farmers and other primary producers, including orchardists.

 

Coventry Family – circa 1911

 

Tom and Hugh (standing), Jack, Harry and Bert (seated), Syd, Nellie, Grace and Gordon (kneeling) Photo: Bruce McDowell

 

Henry and Jane (Spencer) Coventry were married at St John’s Anglican Church Heidelberg in 1887. They established their Diamond Creek orchard property ‘Gracedale’ soon afterwards. The marriage was to produce 10 children: Richard George (1889–1893), Henry William (1890–1973), Herbert Thomas (1891–1972), John Thomas (1894–1950), Hugh Norman (1896–1916 KIA), Thomas (1898–1970), Sydney Alfred (1899–1976), Gordon Richard (1901– 1968), Grace Helena (1904–1986), and Ellen Emma (1908–1984). Syd was the seventh son, and Gordon the eighth.

 

The origin of Gordon’s nickname ‘Nuts’ is not precisely known, but it is generally accepted that his older siblings thought he had a very large head as a baby and nicknamed him accordingly. The name stuck.9

 

There was nothing ‘big-headed’ about Nuts in any other respect, and he was always known to be quietly spoken, modest and friendly. Syd was similar. They never boasted about their successes, they remained calm and composed in times of crisis, and were respectful of the various people they encountered. Both maintained those attitudes throughout their lives.

 

Regardless of those qualities, both developed into no-nonsense and at times ruthless footballers. They were also scrupulously fair players whose careers left indelible marks on the Collingwood Football Club. Both are universally regarded as true ornaments of the game of Australian football.

 

For Henry and Jane Coventry, raising a large family and running an orchard ‘out in the sticks’ in the early 20th century was filled with challenges. Resourceful, proud and independent working folk, they valued education and made sure their children attended the local Nillumbik State School and received a basic education. Henry and Jane also instilled values of modesty in achievements, courtesy and respect for others, and an abiding sense of loyalty to family and friends.

 

Syd and Gordon were shaped and to a degree ‘hardened’ by the times in which they lived. This included some family tragedies and, in Gordon’s case, a serious bout of rheumatic fever in his late teens. The eldest Coventry boy, Richard George – known as ‘Boey’– died of pneumonia at the age of four. He succumbed in his mother’s arms as he was being transported to hospital by horse and cart. Jane felt her first born child’s loss deeply. She made sure he was never forgotten by his siblings and, although the youngest Coventry child Ellen (‘Nellie’) never knew Boey, she always told people she had eight older brothers.

 

When WWI broke out in 1914, two Coventry boys, Norman (nicknamed ‘Oak’) and Tom, enlisted together on 1 December 1915. Aged 20 and 18 respectively, they were given consecutive service numbers – 3786 and 3787 – posted to the Western Front and assigned to the 24th Battalion.

 

While acting as a voluntary stretcher bearer – and under heavy enemy fire – Norman was killed in the Battle of Pozieres in northern France on 5 August 1916. He was mentioned in despatches for his gallantry. He left a young wife, Coral, and a son, Norman (Junior), destined never to know his father. Norman ‘Oak’ Coventry’s body was never recovered, but his name is etched on the wall of the Villers-Bretonneux war memorial in France. Syd and Gordon always maintained that Oak (who had tried out with Fitzroy) – apart from being a loved and admired brother – was the most gifted footballer in the family.

 

Tom and a third Coventry brother, Jack, were also WWI causalities. Tom was seriously wounded in the arm and foot, and returned home. Jack, aged 22, had enlisted in February 1916 and was assigned to the 3rd Pioneer Battalion. He was gassed in the trenches, recovered and returned to his unit, only to be wounded twice more. But he eventually returned home to take his place alongside Syd and Gordon in Diamond Creek’s 1919 football team. They bred them tough in those days.

 

To thank them for their sacrifice of sending sons, husbands or brothers to WWI, the Australian Government presented the nearest female relative (most often a wife or mother) with a specially struck medallion. A bar was added for each additional family member who served. Jane Coventry’s medallion has two bars, and it remains in the care of her great-grandson Bruce McDowell.

 

Jane Coventry was known for her steely resolve, resilience and sometimes feisty nature. While she appreciated the government’s gesture of presenting the medallions, it did not deter her, when writing to the prime minister of the day, William ‘Billy’ Hughes, to thank him for the medallion, to inform him bluntly that she had already supplied him with three of her eight sons for the Great War and he would not be getting any more!

 

Norman, Tom and Jack Coventry’s names appear on the WWI honour boards at St John’s Anglican Church in Diamond Creek, and at the Nillumbik State School. The trio would not be the last Coventrys to serve their country in theatres of war, or to fall in action.

 

Noel Coventry – a grandson of Henry and Jane Coventry and nephew of Syd and Gordon – served with the 2/23rd Battalion in WWII and saw action in the Middle East and New Guinea. He was killed during fierce fighting on the Japanese-held island of Tarakan in May 1945. And two of Syd and Gladys Coventry’s sons Hugh and Jack also served with distinction with the RAAF in WWII.

 

Norman (‘Oak’) Coventry and his nephew Noel Coventry never met. Poignantly, however, their names appear on panels on opposite sides of the Pool of Reflection at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

 

After leaving school the Coventry boys helped their father in the orchard and some, including Syd, also worked in the local mines. Like most young boys of that era, they were drawn by the magnetic appeal of football and gravitated to the local Diamond Creek Football Club. Like their older brothers, Syd and Gordon took to the game as if they were born to it, and were playing in the senior team from their early teens. Playing for Diamond Creek (‘Creek’) was almost a rite of passage for the Coventrys, and prior to WWI there were occasions when up to four Coventry boys took to the field together for Creek.

 

In the aftermath of the war, a then 20-year-old Syd – along with his older brother Bert – spent 1919 and 1920 in Queenstown on the west coast of Tasmania. Syd worked at the Mount Lyell copper mine and captained the Gormanston Miners team in the Lyell Miners Football Association in 1920. After years of hard manual labour in the Diamond Creek fields and mines, he had grown into a strongly built young man, a touch under 6 foot (182 cm) and a touch over 13 stone (83 kg). He more than held his own in a league that, given the extreme weather and playing conditions, contained some of the hardiest footballers in the land.

 

At the same time, Gordon Coventry was kicking goals at full-forward for Diamond Creek and had attracted Collingwood’s attention. The veteran Magpie champion full-forward Dick Lee was nearing retirement and the Collingwood talent scouts saw Gordon – at a whisker over 6 foot (182 cm) and weighing over 13 stone (83 kg) – as a possible replacement. They would be proved right. But not immediately.

 

Gordon did not break into the Magpie side until late in the 1920 season, and could manage only 1 goal in his first match. He did better the following week, kicking 3 goals alongside the great Dick Lee. Gordon finished his first season of VFL football by kicking 3 goals in a losing grand final against Richmond.

 

His play initially failed to impress the football press, however, and following his debut game the Australasian newspaper commented: ‘He was a trifle stage- frightened, for he did not shine. He is a good kick and may come along with experience of the rough and tumble of league life.’

 

As history would show, ‘come along’ he did. And then some.

 

After his Tasmanian sojourn, Syd was ready to return to the mainland, aware that his outstanding playing form in the Apple Isle had been noticed in Melbourne. Perhaps flattered by an approach from St Kilda (the ‘Saints’) – or disappointed by Collingwood’s perceived disinterest – Syd agreed to play with the Saints for season 1921.

 

Gordon refused to believe that Syd could contemplate turning his back on the Magpies, and urged his brother to reconsider. Collingwood then persuaded Syd to sit out the 1921 VFL season, play football with Diamond Creek and join the Magpies in 1922. Courtesy of Magpie magnate John Wren perhaps, Syd may possibly also have received some financial ‘encouragement’ to assist his decision-making.

 

Also in 1921, Syd commenced what was to become a long career with the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) and celebrated his marriage to Gladys Trevaskis.

 

The 1920s and 1930s style of Australian football was different to that of the 2020s. Playing to position, minding one’s man, and attacking straight ‘up the middle’ were the order of the day. Heaven help the player who kicked the ball backwards, across goals, or ‘short’ – especially from the goal square after the opposition had scored a behind. Some players, including Leeter Collier and some of his Magpies teammates, learned to use handball effectively and, with telling effect but for most, handball was used to get out of trouble rather than as a means to keep the game flowing or to creatively start an attack.

 

This was also an era when ‘king hits’ behind play and out of sight of the sole field umpire occurred frequently. As did ‘all-in’ melees. In a match at Victoria Park against Carlton in July 1934, Syd Coventry found himself at the centre of a brawl that required police intervention, and which left him with a fractured skull. Reported by two umpires for striking Coventry, Carlton’s Gordon Mackie appeared before the VFL independent tribunal and was suspended for six matches.

 

A safe pair of hands

 

Gordon ‘Nuts’ Coventry drags down another mark. Collingwood v Fitzroy, circa 1930 Photo: Collingwood Football Club archives

Rough and brutal as it often was, this manner of football suited the Coventrys’ style of play. Both Gordon and Syd threw themselves into the game with little thought for their personal wellbeing. Both were strong overhead, and Syd in particular had a booming right foot that frequently sent the ball into attack from behind the centre line. His versatility enabled him play in the ruck, in defence or wherever he was needed.

 

On the other hand, Gordon was not a particularly ‘natural’ athlete and moved in a slightly cumbersome manner. As Richmond’s full-back Donald Don told the Sporting Globe in 1936:

‘Once [Gordon] Coventry gets in front of you it’s very hard to pass him with his ungainly run, his body wobbling and his arms and legs sprawling.’

 

Gordon quickly developed into a specialist full-forward and was always aware of where he was in relation to the goals. His powerful upper body, exceptionally large hands and vice-like grip on the football when contesting a mark set him apart from his peers. Early in his career, like many other forwards, he used the place kick when kicking for goal. But he found it to be unreliable, and when he adopted the flat punt as his preferred kick the goals began to mount up. According to Ansell Clarke – a renowned goal kicker and veteran of 145 games with Carlton [and 26 with St Kilda in the 1920s and 1930s] – Gordon was among the first to use the ‘banana’ (or ‘screwball’ kick, as it was called in the 1930s) when shooting for goal from an acute angle. Clarke was quoted in the press as saying: ‘The first time I saw it was against Collingwood when Gordon Coventry kicked a goal using that type of kick. The first time he did it I thought he was lucky but when he did it again there was obviously no fluke.’

 

Gordon Coventry also mastered the art of using his bulk and strength to position himself in front of his man and receive the ball within goal-scoring distance. He did so often – 1,299 times to be precise. He was the first VFL player to play 300 games, the first to kick 100 goals in a season and the first to record 1,000 majors. In his career he kicked 100 or more goals against every VFL club other than Footscray, against which he kicked 99. Given that all of his football was in an era when only 18 home-and-away games were played, it is quite remarkable that his record of 1,299 career goals stood for more than 60 years, until it was surpassed by St Kilda/Sydney Swans champion Tony Lockett in 1999.

 

Syd Coventry was a natural leader and was appointed as Collingwood captain in his fifth year as a senior player. He must have had some concerns for his football future, however, after he played in Collingwood’s losing grand final team in 1925. In Collingwood Football Club 1892–1948, club historian, journalist and author Percy Taylor revealed:

‘Syd Coventry wrote to ask his chances of a clearance to the country. It was reported he had already gone to Horsham [in Victoria’s Wimmera Mallee region] … It was decided to inform him that a clearance would be refused.’

 

Syd Coventry

 

Champion player. Fearless leader. Enlightened administrator and Collingwood to his core. Photo: Collingwood Football Club archives

Syd stayed where he was and took over from Charlie Tyson on the eve of the 1927 season after Tyson was stripped of the captaincy and dropped from the playing list following speculation that he had ‘played dead’ (an assertion that Tyson vehemently denied) in the 1926 grand final.

 

Syd took the responsibility in his stride, and in 1927 led the Magpies to a premiership in his first year as skipper – and the following three to boot!

 

 

The 1927 grand final against Richmond (the ‘Tigers’) was played in appalling conditions resulting in a hard-fought, low-scoring game in which only three goals were kicked. The Magpies outlasted the Tigers winning 2 goals 13 to 1 goal 7.

 

The Magpies put the Tigers to the sword in the 1928 and 1929 grand finals, with the Coventrys, Colliers and Murphys being major contributors on both occasions. Collingwood’s performance in 1928 was described by Percy Taylor as:

‘A grand exhibition of strong and sterling play, Collingwood competent in every phase being one of the finest teams ever seen in a final match.’ And in 1929, ‘Collingwood took control with machine-like precision after the first 10 minutes’ to defeat the Tigers by a comfortable 29 points.

 

In 1929 the Collingwood ‘Machine’ was undefeated in the home-and-away season. Gordon ‘Nuts’ Coventry became the first VFL player to register more than 100 goals in a season, and finished the season with 124 majors against his name. And icing was added to the cake when Leeter Collier won the Magpies’ second Brownlow medal. It was indeed an all-conquering performance.

 

Coach Jock McHale had built his Machine Team on a game strategy that put teamwork and unselfishness above all else, and the quadrella of Collingwood’s premierships was completed in 1930 when the Magpies defeated Geelong by 30 points. Percy Taylor was to describe Collingwood’s 1930 grand-final performance as: ‘Not brilliant or dashing, although they are brilliant in parts, Collingwood’s discipline was of such a high order of merit to stamp them as the leading team of the league.’

 

Just as McHale would have demanded and expected. Nothing more. Nothing less.

 

Syd Coventry never forgot his roots. By 1926 he was an established Collingwood player and was part of an unsuccessful Magpie premiership tilt against Melbourne. Yet, as the Hurstbridge Advertiser reported in April 1926, he was still prepared to act as Diamond Creek’s ‘honorary’ coach for the upcoming season:

‘The season promises well and there are several new players … it is pleasing to note that the great local player – S. Coventry – has promised to do his best to get his old club in the lead for 1926, and the players are grateful for his services.’

 

The level of Syd’s involvement with Creek as its ‘honorary’ coach is unrecorded. Even if he only turned up at training now and again, and watched the occasional game, it could not have been a better public relations exercise, and Creek went on to claim 1926 DVFA premiership honours. Clearly something had worked!10

 

Syd Coventry demonstrated his strength and leadership capacity in 1928 when his cash-strapped players railed against a pay-cut imposed by the CFC committee, and threatened to ‘down boots’ and go on strike. Syd’s calm and logical reasoning convinced his players not to do so. The team played on, and Syd’s status and authority was enhanced.

 

In 1950 and long retired as a player, Syd would again step up when the club found itself in crisis following the ill-conceived replacement of Jock McHale with Collingwood’s seconds coach and former player Bervin Woods. The ‘push back’ from supporters and some players saw Woods resign only weeks into the job. Coventry accepted the presidency, took control and restored a sense of order to the situation. Former champion player Phonse Kyne was appointed as coach, and Syd presided over a Magpie premiership three years later.

 

Gordon Coventry possessed an extraordinary capacity to kick big ‘bags’ of goals. He kicked nine in the 1928 winning grand final against Richmond, and reached double figures on 11 occasions during his outstanding career. In particular, his performances against Hawthorn in 1929 and Fitzroy in 1930 stood out.

 

As the Collingwood Illustrated Encyclopedia records:

‘Within five minutes of the opening bounce [against Hawthorn in 1929] Gordon Coventry set the tone with four goals.’

 

The Magpies booted 10 goals in the opening term with Coventry contributing eight. Held goalless in the second quarter, he unleashed again in the third quarter to take his tally to 13. A further three goals in the final quarter created a then VFL record of 16 goals.

 

Coventry followed this up in 1930 with 17 goals against Fitzroy, and bettered the record he had created in the preceding season. He started quietly with 2 goals in the first quarter followed by 3 in the second. He added 6 more in the third and a further half dozen were bagged in the last. He was later presented with the mounted and inscribed match ball – and a £50 (about $4,300 today) ‘gladhander’ from John Wren did not go astray.

 

Syd Coventry took advantage of commercial opportunities that came his way. In 1931 – after leading the Magpies to four consecutive premierships – he endorsed and wore London Stores [menswear emporium] ‘Viking Twill’, tailored suits that sold for £4 pounds 15 shillings – a price that included an ‘extra pair of trousers for free’.

 

He also endorsed a locally manufactured football boot bearing a facsimile of his signature. Thinking their playing performance would automatically be boosted if they wore the boot, many young footballers couldn’t wait to get their feet into the Syd Coventry ‘rubber and leather waterproof football boot’!

 

Not so for Gordon, however, who always got several seasons out of his boots. He wore each pair until the veteran Collingwood boot-studder Stan Bouchier could no longer restitch and restud them. Coventry family folklore tells us that when Gordon – who always understood the value of a quid – received new boots before he was ready to discard an old pair, he would remove the stops, have them re-heeled and use the boots for work.

 

The Coventry brothers both knew when it was ‘time’ and, unlike the Colliers, they did not have to be forced into retirement.

 

After 227 games, four premierships (as captain) and the 1927 Brownlow medal, Syd retired at the end of the 1934 season. Giving some indication of his standing within the football community, a news report noting Syd Coventry’s retirement appeared in the Weekly Times:

‘Syd Coventry played his last game for Collingwood on Saturday. He goes into retirement with the reputation of one of the finest and fairest footballers the league has known. He led his team to four successive premierships, captained Victoria … and won a Brownlow medal. While men of Coventry’s type remain in the game, football will never be in danger of losing its popularity.’

 

The Argus made similar comments:

‘The game has had many champions, many fine sportsmen, but none has shed greater lustre on the sport than this man … who … leaves the game … with the knowledge that he is admired and respected by all who take an interest in football.’

 

Syd spent two uneventful years (1935–36) as Footscray’s non-playing coach before returning ‘home’ to Collingwood to join its committee. He served the club as an administrator for 24 years, including 13 years as president. In all, he gave the Magpies 54 years of service as a player and administrator.

 

A generous man with his time and money, Syd served as a committee man at the Parkside Amateur Football Club in the late 1940s while also a Collingwood vice-president. Founded in 1934, Parkside lacked experienced administrators and had turned to Syd for guidance. Living close to Parkside’s home ground in Fairfield, Syd was happy to oblige, and served on the committee for several years.

 

When the Magpies became the first VFL club to be granted a liquor licence in 1940, Syd invited three of his brothers to the official opening of the Collingwood Football Social Club premises some months later. He knew they would find themselves in a ‘shout’ at some stage during the function, so he quietly slipped a pound note into their jacket pockets to make sure that they would not be embarrassed when their turn to shout came around.

 

After Syd retired, Gordon remained in the game until 1937. He finished his career with 306 games – not to speak of five premierships, a Copeland trophy and the distinction of being the Magpies leading goal kicker 16 times. Gordon’s final game was the 1937 grand final, which happened to fall on his 36th birthday. His hoped-for present failed to materialise. The Magpies were defeated by Geelong by 32 points and, booting three goals, Gordon finished his career on 1,299 goals. He also kicked seven behinds!

 

But at least he got on to the ground. In 1936, Gordon was bitterly disappointed to miss the Magpies premiership through, of all things, suspension. Throughout his decorated career, Coventry had always been regarded as a scrupulously fair player and had never appeared before the VFL tribunal. He entered Round 13 of the 1936 season suffering from painful boils on the back of his neck. His Richmond opponent, Joe Murdoch, seized the opportunity to exploit the situation, and niggled away, continuously knocking the back of Gordon’s neck. Finally, he had had enough. Bang! ‘Nuts’ struck back in retaliation. Booked by the field umpire, he fronted the tribunal a few nights later. His hitherto unblemished record was discounted, and he was suspended for eight weeks. The suspension included Collingwood’s two finals matches. Along with another suspended Magpie star Len Murphy, Gordon was forced to watch on while Collingwood, under Harry Collier’s captaincy, won its second successive premiership. Gordon’s suspension provided an opportunity for an 18-year-old up and comer named Ron Todd to replace him. Todd did not disappoint. He booted 4 goals from 13 shots and went on to enjoy a celebrated Magpie career that was to end when he accepted a lucrative offer – bankrolled by colourful bookmaker Bill Dooley – to cross to Williamstown in the VFA in 1940.

 

In retirement Gordon contributed articles to the Sporting Globe for a number of years. Like Syd, Gordon never forgot his roots, and returned to Diamond Creek Football Club for a one-year coaching stint in 1952. He was honoured with DCFC life membership the same year. When the ‘Creek’ moved to a new home ground in the early 2000s, it was named Coventry Oval in honour of two of the club’s greatest sons. The recognition and the honour would have brought proud smiles to Syd and Gordon’s faces.

 

From 1950 to 1966, Gordon served on the Diamond Valley Football League tribunal alongside chairman and former Melbourne champion and 1946 Brownlow medallist Dr Don Cordner. At the time, the DVFL (formerly DVFA) was prone to more than a modicum of unruly on-field behaviour. The tribunal needed a strong-willed and authoritative person like Cordner to keep the peace between the warring ‘tribes’ that roamed the playing fields. While Cordner was regarded by some as a ‘hanging judge’, this was offset to some degree by Gordon, who showed a little more compassion for and empathy with reported players than did the good doctor. They were, however, a great team and close personal friends.

 

Unquestionably, Gordon Coventry is among the greatest full-forwards to have played the game. Like those of Dick Lee, George Doig, Bob Pratt, John Coleman, Peter Hudson, Ken Farmer, Lance Franklin, Gary Ablett (Senior) and Tony Lockett (the only VFL/AFL player to have kicked more goals), his name is uttered with awe and admiration wherever football historians might gather.

 

Gordon ‘Nuts’ Coventry was the VFL’s leading goal kicker in seasons 1926– 30, 1932 and 1937. His record of 1,299 goals from 306 games stood as a VFL/AFL record for 62 years before being surpassed by Tony Lockett in 1999. And the names Coventry and Lockett are perpetuated with the naming of each ‘end’ of the AFL’s Docklands stadium – ‘Coventry’ and ‘Lockett’.

 

Whenever Syd Coventry is spoken of or written about, the word ‘leader’ is used to describe him. Leaders are characterised by many qualities, including passion, courage and commitment. And great leaders always lead by example. Few other leaders at Collingwood – or anywhere else in the world of Australian football – embodied these qualities as a player, captain or administrator as did Syd Coventry.

 

The Coventry legacy and spirit lives on, and family members have continued the VFL/AFL playing tradition into a second and third generation. Others have had excellent playing careers in the VFA, VAFA, various country leagues and local football in the DVFL with Diamond Creek and Greensborough (‘Boro’). That ‘rite of passage’ continues still.

 

Syd and Gladys Coventry’s marriage produced four sons: Hugh, Jack, Syd (Junior) and Gordon. Their births were spread over 15 years and, indicating the closeness of the family, three of the four boys were named after Coventry uncles.

 

The boys all developed into excellent footballers who at various stages found their way to Victoria Park. Hugh and Syd (Junior) made it to senior level, while Jack and Gordon played in Collingwood’s reserves. Supporters, and others who hung around the club reminded them often, ‘You’re not as good as yer old man or uncle, son … and yer never will be!’ But as Syd’s son Gordon told me, that was the way it was. ‘You just had to put up with it and get on with playing footy,’ he said. ‘But it sort of wore thin after a while.’

 

Recruited from Ivanhoe Amateurs, Hugh Coventry played eight games with Collingwood in 1941 before enlisting in the RAAF in November 1941 and undergoing training at Somers on the Mornington Peninsula and later in Canada and Great Britain.

 

Initially attached to RAF 149 Squadron and later 199 Squadron, Hugh was to pilot huge four-engine, Stirling bombers for 42 missions over France and Germany. These missions involved bombing road and railway infrastructures and depots, laying shipping mines, supply drops for the French resistance, and laying decoy target trails. After two tours with Bomber Command, Hugh was relocated to the Asia–Pacific conflict area for the final 15 months of his service. In 1945, Flight Lieutenant Hugh Coventry was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for ‘skills and fortitude in operations against the enemy’.

 

Discharged from service in May 1946, and newly married to Beth Gradwell (who he met while based in Brisbane during the final months of his war service),

 

Hugh returned to Melbourne. Together with his brother Jack, he played with Collingwood in a VFL reserves semi-final against Essendon, which the Magpies lost. Jack Coventry was later captain and coach of Melton in the Melton and Bacchus Marsh District Football League.

 

By 1947 Hugh had missed six seasons of VFL football and he struggled to regain a regular place in the senior team. He thus became one of the many VFL footballers whose playing career was shortened, or curtailed altogether, because of the war. Who knows what direction his football career may otherwise have taken?

 

Hugh, however, was far from finished with football. After he and Beth relocated to Brisbane, he played the 1947 and 1948 seasons with Western Districts in the Queensland Australian National Football League (QANFL now QAFL). The family returned to Victoria in 1950, and Hugh enjoyed a successful playing and coaching stint with Wycheproof (‘Wyche’) in the North Central Football League (NCFL). As Wyche’s captain/coach from 1950 to 1954, he led his team to a premiership in 1952. He relinquished the coaching role in 1955, but continued as a player with Wyche, who were again NCFL premiers.

 

In 1956, Hugh took on another player/coaching role and led Berriwillock in the Tyrell league to a premiership before returning to Wyche as a player in 1957 and yet another flag. One of Hugh’s star players at Wycheproof was Alex Denney (of whom more is said later), who was a former Collingwood player and married to Betty Coventry, a daughter of Gordon ‘Nuts’ Coventry.

 

Hugh and Beth Coventry had three children: a daughter Helen, and two sons David and Donald. David Coventry says that had women’s football been played when Helen was growing up, ‘she’d have been a star’. But neither he nor his brother Donald were to be recipients of ‘some of the elite Coventry football genes’. Donald was never particularly interested in football, and followed a successful career in the arts and environment.

 

As for himself, David described his football ability to me as ‘keen but never seeming to get anywhere close to the action’. David says that his grandfather Syd sometimes watched him playing footy at Macleod High School, and after one less than memorable performance suggested to David: ‘I think it best if you stick to your studies.’ David followed his granddad’s sage advice and went on to have a distinguished academic career, earning an Order of Australia award along the way.

 

Syd Coventry (Junior) played over 50 under-19 and reserves games in the early 1950s and made his Magpie senior debut in 1954. Playing at centre-half- back, he acquitted himself well in his first game against Hawthorn’s much- vaunted South Australian recruit Clayton ‘Candles’ Thompson. He also did well against South Melbourne champion Jim Taylor a week or two later, but moved back to Parkside in the VAFA at the end of the 1954 season. By 1956 he was playing district football with Mordialloc, but a serious ankle injury eventually forced him into retirement.

 

Syd Senior’s youngest son Gordon was a star with Parkside Amateurs and played several reserves games at Collingwood in 1956. He was recruited by VFA side Port Melbourne, playing some 40 games over three seasons under coach Tommy ‘Turk’ Lahiff – who later became the much-loved ‘sidekick’ to former VFL umpire turned football broadcaster Harry Beitzel. Gordon moved on to Templestowe in the DVFL, served the club as a player and an official for decades, and is a Templestowe Football Club life member.

 

Demonstrating that football is well and truly in the Coventry genes, Gordon’s sons (Syd Senior’s grandsons) Rodney and Stuart both played more than 100 games with Templestowe and later played with Finley in the Murray Football League. Another grandson, Dirk Heinz [a son of Jack Coventry’s daughter Karin], was an outstanding player with University Blues in the VAFA.

 

Gordon ‘Nuts’ Coventry and Chrystabel (Lawrie) were married in 1925. They had four children: George, Betty, Margaret and Graham. George played one game in Collingwood’s reserves in 1947 before returning to district football with Greensborough in the DVFL. A talented player, George was a member of Greensborough’s 1952, 1955 and 1958 premiership teams, and a teammate of former Melbourne star Dr Ted Cordner (the eldest of four brothers who played with Melbourne in the 1940s and 1950s) who had returned to play with ‘Boro’ after he finished at Melbourne.

 

Graham, who was 20 years younger than George, played his junior football with Greensborough, where his outstanding play – as well as his name – caught the attention of Magpie talent scouts. He played some 40 games with Collingwood’s under-19s and reserves from 1962 to 1964 before returning to Greensborough. A prodigious kick and strong overhead mark, Graham became an outstanding full-back/centre-half-back in the DVFL. He was a leading player in Boro’s 1966 and 1967 DVFL premierships (both over Templestowe) and was a stalwart at Greensborough until the mid-1970s.

 

Gordon’s daughters Betty and Margaret were born too early to be part of women’s football, but both have contributed footballers to the Coventry dynasty. Margaret’s son (Gordon’s grandson) Peter Banks graduated to Collingwood’s under-19s from Greensborough, and won the Morrish medal as the best and fairest player in the VFL’s under-19 competition in 1979. Though he failed to advance to senior level, he went on to become a four-time DVFL premiership player with Greensborough.

 

Betty’s husband Alec Denney came from farming stock in Victoria’s Mallee region. Born in 1926, he came to Melbourne when he was 11, and attended Caulfield Grammar School to complete his secondary education. He returned to the family farm and commenced playing with Wycheproof in the North Central Football League from the early 1940s.

 

Alec enlisted in the RAAF in February 1945 and was posted to the No. 7 Aircraft Depot in Tocumwal, NSW. There he developed a close friendship with George Coventry (Gordon’s son). After the war, George introduced Alec to his famous father, who encouraged Alec to have a run at Victoria Park. Alec was also introduced to Georgie’s sister Betty and before long the two had become an ‘item’.

 

Alec went on to play 35 games for the Magpies in 1947–1948 before returning to run the family farm, and to marry Betty in March 1949. He resumed his local football career with Wyche and won the North Central League best and fairest in 1952. In the same year, Wyche’s captain/coach was Betty’s cousin Hugh Coventry – and Wyche won the flag!

 

Alec and Betty’s son Sandy was also an outstanding player. Widely believed to be in the mould of his father Alec and grandfather Gordon, Sandy played in five premierships for Wycheproof-Narraport in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

The Betty and Alec Denney footballer progeny story goes on. Their grandson James Walker is the son of their daughter Mary, and accordingly a great-grandson of Gordon [‘Nuts’]. James developed into an outstanding under-18s player with North Ballarat. He caught the eye of Fremantle Dockers talent scouts with a best-on-ground performance in the 1997 AFL national under-18 championships. Drafted by Fremantle, he played a number of WAFL games with West Perth before breaking into the Fremantle side late in the 1998 season. A hard-running defender and wingman, James went on to play 151 games and booted 16 goals in his nine-year career with the Dockers.

 

The marriage of Syd and Gordon’s youngest sister Nellie to Bill McDowell in 1925 brought with it another VFL football connection. Bill had played 11 games with North Melbourne in 1927 and 1928, and his cousin Joe Poulter (whose son Ray, played 170 games with Richmond in the 1940s and 1950s) had been a teammate of Syd and Gordon at Collingwood, including as a premiership player in 1927.

 

Bill and Nellie’s son Don and his wife Joan produced six sons and a daughter. Their son Bruce is a keen student of Coventry family history and, continuing a family DVFL tradition, both Don and Bruce are former champion Greensborough players.11

 

When Henry Coventry and Jane Spencer exchanged their wedding vows in 1887, they could not have known that down through the generations among their progeny there would be legal, accounting, teaching and healthcare professionals. There would be academics, economists, scientists, farmers, business and marketing executives, and others who would follow commercial pursuits. There would also be hairdressers, butchers, police officers, government executives and construction workers. From that long-ago union would come a long line of war heroes, elite sportsmen and women, and outstanding citizens and human beings.

 

The situation was similar for Albert and Hannah (Binks) Collier, who were married at much the same time as the Coventrys, and also produced 10 children.

 

If anyone knew ‘how to play the game’ – as the Collingwood club song goes – it was surely the Collier and Coventry brothers. The manner in which they played, however, is of even greater importance. They played to win, but within the rules, and they respected their teammates and their opponents. Always.

 

Harry and ‘Leeter’ Collier and Syd and ‘Nuts’ Coventry epitomised the Collingwood spirit like few others. They fitted perfectly into the style of football of the day – the Jock McHale philosophy of teamwork and discipline.

 

Their list of football achievements is almost endless. In brief, both sets of brothers were multiple premiership players, and all were Copeland trophy winners. Syd Coventry, Albert Collier and Harry Collier were Brownlow medallists and the Colliers are the only duo of brothers to have won the Brownlow. Gordon Coventry was Collingwood’s leading goal kicker 16 times and the VFL’s seven times. And he was the first VFL player to reach 300 games and kick 1,000 goals.

 

Collectively, these four greats played 1,003 games of VFL football and booted 1,726 goals.12 Syd Coventry captained the Magpies to four consecutive VFL premierships (1927–30), while Harry Collier was the skipper when Collingwood won flags in 1935 and 1936. All four represented Victoria on multiple occasions, and Syd Coventry was the Victorian state captain from 1927 to 1934. Syd and Gordon’s record of brothers playing together in six consecutive VFL grand finals (1925–30), is in all likelihood, unmatched.13

 

With the exception of 1931, when the Copeland trophy (as Collingwood’s best and fairest player) was won by Harold Rumney, a Coventry or a Collier took the award every year from 1927 to 1935. Harry and Leeter and Syd and Gordon were all named in Collingwood’s ‘Team of the Century’ and are members of the club’s Hall of Fame. When the AFL established the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, all four were inaugural inductees, with Gordon Coventry elevated to ‘Legend’ in 1998. And so it goes on.

 

The contributions to the Collingwood Football Club and Australian football of the brothers Collier and Coventry are, simply, beyond measure.

 

Notes related to the three part extract

• The 12 Collingwood players who played in four consecutive premierships from 1927 to 1930 were Syd Coventry (captain), Gordon Coventry, Harry Collier, Albert Collier, Frank Murphy, Charlie Dibbs, George Clayden, Harry Chesswas, Jack Beveridge, Bob Makeham, Harold Rumnay and Billy Libbis. No one is exactly sure why Albert was nicknamed ‘Leeter’. The Italian neighbour explanation is widely accepted, but Albert’s son Richard gives some credence to the story told to him by a family member some years ago. It appears that as a small child, one of Albert’s younger sisters had difficulty in pronouncing ‘Albert’ and called him ‘Aleet’. This eventually evolved into ‘Leeter’. The Colliers were good with nicknames, and Hannah Collier had to make blue and pink bow ties for identical twins Herbert and Ernest to wear at school so the teachers and students could tell them apart. The boys became known as ‘Bluey’ and ‘Pinky’ for the rest of their lives.
• The youngest person to play at VFL level was Claude Clough, who played his first game with St Kilda in 1900 at the age of 15 years and 209 days. Others (in order of age) who have made their VFL debut before turning 16 are Keith Bromage (Collingwood 1953) 15 years and 287 days; Albert Collier (Collingwood 1925) 15 years and 297 days; Tim Watson (Essendon 1977) 15 years and 305 days; Wels Eicke (St Kilda 1909) 15 years and 315 days; Mick Maguire (Richmond 1910) 15 years and 328 days; and Len Fitzgerald (Collingwood 1945) 15 years and 349 days.
• Collingwood never hesitated to use players who were a little under six feet tall in the ruck or in key positions. If a player was ‘somewhere around’ six feet, had a good spring, plenty of heart and a passion to play, he could find himself in the ruck or anywhere else that Jock McHale thought he could contribute. Such players became known as Collingwood ‘six-footers’. Many became champions.
• Albert Collier was the first to win senior league best and fairest awards in two Australian states. Haydn Bunton (Senior) – who won the Brownlow medal in 1931, 1932 and 1935 and the Sandover medal (WAFL) in 1938, 1939 and 1941– was the first to win best and fairest awards in two ‘mainland’ states. Others who have won league best and fairest awards in two states are Malcolm Blight (Magarey 1972 and Brownlow 1978); Nathan Buckley (Magarey 1992 and Brownlow 2003); and Matt Priddis (Sandover 2006 and Brownlow 2014).
• John Wren (1871–1953) was a wealthy, self-made entrepreneur who got his start as an illegal ‘Tote’ operator in Collingwood in the early 1890s. Wren was passionate about Australian football and horse racing. He was made infamous as the thinly disguised, nefarious protagonist in Frank Hardy’s novel Power Without Glory, published in 1950.
• Le Brun played 50 games with South Melbourne, Essendon, Collingwood and Carlton between 1929 and 1935. He is one of only about 25 VFL players to have represented four clubs.
• Bernie Quinlan played 177 games and kicked 241 goals for Footscray and 189 games and 576 goals with Fitzroy in an 18-year career between 1969 and 1986. He was a prodigious kick and became known as ‘Superboot’.
• Ellen (Nell), the youngest of Henry and Jane Coventry’s 10 children, always disputed the ‘big head’ theory, but never offered any other explanation of the nickname other than that her mother (Jane) did not know its origin and was never happy when people said it was because he had a big head.
• Syd Coventry may have agreed to act as Diamond Creek’s ‘honorary’ coach for 1926 as a favour to his brother-in-law Bill McDowell, who was married to his sister Nellie and was playing for Creek at the time. After playing 11 games for North Melbourne, McDowell returned to the DVFL in 1929 and played with both Diamond Creek and Greensborough at various stages until he retired from football in 1934. Don McDowell played 200 games for Greensborough from 1949 to 1960. He was a four-time premiership player, and a Boro and DVFL best and fairest winner. Bruce played under-19s and reserves games with Collingwood in 1970. He returned to Greensborough and played 102 games over 10 years. He was DVFL’s leading goalkicker in 1975 and 1976.
• The individual games and goals of the Collier and Coventry brothers are: Harry Collier – 253 games, 299 goals (Collingwood); Albert ‘Leeter’ Collier – 205 games, 54 goals (Collingwood), 38 games, 5 goals (Cananore, TFL), 12 games, 12 goals (Fitzroy); Syd Coventry – 227 games, 62 goals (Collingwood); Gordon ‘Nuts’ Coventry – 306 games, 1,299 goals (Collingwood).
• In the absence of conducting exhaustive research into brothers playing consecutive grand finals, I cannot be more definitive than what I have written in the text.

 

Read Part 1, Here , and Part 2 Here

 

For further information about Des’ book click Here.

 

 

Join the Footy Almanac Tipping Comps: AFL, AFL Tip the Top 8, and NRL. It’s all explained HERE.

NRL starts March 1, Las Vegas time, which is March 2 Australian time. AFL starts March 6 at 6.50pm Queensland time.

 

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  home page click HERE

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

 

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE