A chat with Fred McGinis
With the Cananore team (Hobart) which arrived in Sydney on Monday, was Fred McGinis, by many critics considered the greatest player the Australian game has known.
The Cananore lads are to play in Brisbane, but though they were in Sydney only a few hours (the team left for the northern capital on Monday night), some wended their way to the Sydney Cricket Ground to see Tasmania play Queensland. Among them was Fred McGinis. I had not seen him for 24 years, and that was before he became a senior footballer.
Everybody interested in the Australian game knows that Fred went to Victoria, threw in his lot with the Melbourne club in 1893, and in his first match he became famous. Football fans followed McGinis' club about to see him play. Read what 'Markwell’ of the Argus said of him in 1908 in criticising crack players:
"To Tasmania belongs the honor of having produced the first artist amongst Melbourne cracks of fairly recent years. In Fred McGinis the club was blessed with a born footballer. I remember seeing him make his first appearance in the Melbourne team, when he astonished and charmed me with his display. He simply dropped into his place as if he were made for it. He picked his men like one who had played with them for years, and he was the personification of cool cleverness and resource. And all that he showed himself on that first day he remained up to the time when, unfortunately, his light went out literally, and he could no longer see to play."
Fred was playing as a schoolboy when I remember him in Hobart, his elder brother George being a representative footballer, and in the City team for many seasons. Fred is 5ft 10½ in height, and when he was playing for Melbourne, from 1893 to 1901, he weighed about 12st 5lb. I was immensely pleased to see him again, and as The Referee photographer was on the ground, he photographed him. His many old admirers in Victoria will doubtless like to see how he looks at the present time. But for his eyesight, which is not good enough to enable him to play, Fred looks fit to enter, the field now. His face is ruddy with the glow of health, and he is not carrying much superfluous flesh.
With old-timer Charlie Goddard, we chatted over players of long ago. "I consider Thurgood the finest kick I have seen,'' said Fred. 'Whenever he had a shot from 50 yards it was good enough to walk to the centre for the bounce. Thurgood was a match-winner, for he could play in any position with success. "He was the greatest footballer I ever encountered".
"If Charlie Eady had gone to Melbourne, he would have made a name there all right. "No, the, Tasmanians of today cannot play football nearly so well as they did some years ago. They don't dash for the ball fast enough, and their handling is faulty. Then, again, they don't train as they should. As you know, our ground at Hobart is small compared with this [SCG], and the extra, stamina necessary to last out a game on this area tells on them. It is imposslble for a player to succeed unless he thoroughly attunes himself; the last quarter is sure to find him wanting."
Fred is one of Cannnore's trainers, and on his return from Brisbane will remain in Sydney for a few days.
Footnotes
TITLE: Chat with Fred McGinis. PUBLISHER: Referee (Sydney, NSW: 1886 - 1939) DATE: Wednesday 12 August 1914, p.12 (Article) AUTHOR: Old-timer LINK: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120278399
Comments
This article does not contain any comments.
Login to leave a comment.