By all right, George Goodall should have been a South Melbourne footballer.
By 1913 he had become so well known for his play with South Melbourne Juniors that one newspaper described him as a “stalwart” of that club. So it was no surprise when he trialled with the South Melbourne senior club during the pre-season period.
But South didn’t give him much of a go, and George could have been forgiven for feeling that the world was against him. His father, a Norwegian man also called George, had drowned in the Yarra River the year before, and he would surely still have been grieving.
But George Jnr didn’t give up. Just two weeks later he was taking part in a ‘possibles v probables’ type intraclub game for Collingwood, where he was named among the best players. And just a few weeks after that he was chosen to make his senior VFL debut for the Magpies in their second round clash with Geelong at Victoria Park.
He was considered mostly a follower/forward in his time with South Melbourne, but in his brief career with Collingwood would play both back and forward, on a flank or in a pocket. Reviews of his debut were mixed, with The Age noting that: “Goodall, a new man, is the makings of a footballer, but on Saturday he did not seem to relish the stressful side of the play.”
Collingwood certainly required toughness of its footballers in those days, so it’s no surprise that George found himself omitted from the team the next week. He then went and played with Collingwood Districts and was cleared back there mid-season. But surprisingly he returned for another senior game late in the season against South Melbourne, after which The Leader said he had “created a first rate impression.”
The other thing that created an impression was his attitude to training. Despite being dropped after just that one early game, he continued to train with such energy and regularity that he won a gold medal for a training prize at the end of the year.
He was back to train again in 1914, and after one practice match a local newspaper noted: “Goodall, the tall chap who played a few games last year, is a greatly improved player and did some good ruck work.”
But it wasn’t good enough for Collingwood selectors. He only played one senior game in the first half of 1914, against Melbourne in Round 2, and was then cleared to Northcote. The year after he went to Port Melbourne.
In 1924 he was involved in a nasty incident when a pedestrian in Collingwood was killed after being struck by the car George was driving. But the coroner ruled he wasn’t at fault and that it had been an accidental death caused by the woman becoming confused while crossing the road.
George Goodall overcame family tragedy to play three games in his two years at Collingwood. That, and his commitment to training while with us, marked him as a player made of the right stuff, even if his career wasn't a long one.
- Michael Roberts