Australian Football

An effervescent, fiery rover who was quintessentially hard as nails, Richmond’s Billy Wilson was extremely well versed in the art of looking after himself - and equally adept at ‘taking care’ of opponents as well. On one famous occasion he responded to the unusual ignominy of having been flattened during the game by Collingwood’s Lou Richards by taking the law into his own hands as the teams were departing the field, and leaving Richards with a telling reminder (in the form of a serious case of concussion) of just who was boss.

Wilson, who was a regular ‘Big V’ representative (10 games in all) for most of his VFL career, played 185 games and kicked 225 goals for the Tigers between 1944 and 1954. He won the club’s best and fairest award in 1947 and, along with Bill Morris and Roy Wright, gave Richmond arguably the best first ruck combination in the league for much of his time in the game. Many old timers will probably have considered Wilson to be a ‘shoe-in’ for a roving berth in the Tigers’ official ‘Team of the Century’, but the selectors had other ideas, and went for the more recent, hence safer, pairing of Kevin Bartlett and Dale Weightman.

Billy Wilson finished his senior career with Glenelg, where he played 39 league games (plus four for the state) and booted 45 goals from 1955 to 1957, winning both the Bays’ best-and-fairest award and the prestigious News-Ampol Trophy in his first season. He also ran third in the Magarey Medal voting the same year.

Author - John Devaney