Alf Wood (Australian footballer) explained

Alf Wood
Fullname:	Alfred Mathew Wood
Birth Date:	15 February 1875
Birth Place:	Glenlyon, Victoria
Death Place:	East Melbourne, Victoria
Originalteam:	Maryborough
Position:	Defence
Statsend:	1899
Years1:	1897–1899
Games Goals1:	43 (4)

Alfred Mathew Wood (15 February 1875 – 16 November 1945) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).^[1]

Football

On many occasions the press (mistakenly) identified him as "Woods", rather than "Wood".^[2]

Melbourne (VFL)

His first game for Melbourne was on the half-back flank, against South Melbourne, at the Lake Oval, on 8 May 1897, the first round of the first year of the new VFL competition.

VFL representative

Wood played in the VFL team against Ballarat Football League in 1898.^[3]

1899 team of "champions"

At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for The Argus, Reginald Wilmot ("Old Boy"), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:

• Backs: Maurie Collins (Essendon), Bill Proudfoot (Collingwood), Peter Burns (Geelong);
• Halfbacks: Pat Hickey (Fitzroy), George Davidson (South Melbourne), Alf Wood (Melbourne);
• Centres: Fred Leach (Collingwood), Firth McCallum (Geelong), Harry Wright (Essendon);
• Wings: Charlie Pannam (Collingwood), Eddie Drohan (Fitzroy), Herb Howson (South Melbourne);
• Forwards: Bill Jackson (Essendon), Eddy James (Geelong), Charlie Colgan (South Melbourne);
• Ruck: Mick Pleass (South Melbourne), Frank Hailwood (Collingwood), Joe McShane (Geelong);
• Rovers: Dick Condon (Collingwood), Bill McSpeerin (Fitzroy), Teddy Rankin (Geelong).

From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — Wilmot selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season. ^[4]

Death

He died at a private hospital in East Melbourne, Victoria on 16 November 1945.^[5]

References

• Book: Holmesby, Russell. The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 . Main. Jim . 2014 . 10th . 978-1-921496-32-5 . BAS Publishing . Seaford, Victoria.
• Pennings, Mark (2016), Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's early History: Volume 4: Tough Times: Victorian Football loses its Way, 1891 to 1896, Brunswick, Victoria: Grumpy Monks Publishing.

External links

• • • Alf Wood, at Demonwiki.
• Alf. Wood, at Blueseum.

Notes and References

1. Holmesby & Main (2014), p. 968.
2. For instance, The (Melbourne) Herald, 28 July 1899.
3. Web site: 1898 - The League v. Ballarat . The Argus (Melbourne, Vic) . 12 May 2024 . 7 . 1 August 1898.
4. Web site: "Old Boy" . 1899 - Football: A Review of the Season . Trove Newspapers . The Argus (Melbourne, Vic) . 12 May 2024 . 6 . 18 September 1899.
5. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1L1VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NZcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3146%2C4654499 Deaths: Wood, The Age, (Saturday, 17 November 1945), p. 11.