The one and only... Larry Cordner
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In annals of VFL and AFL football, there have not been many names as revered as 'Cordner'. From the day Ted Cordner Senior made his debut for Melbourne in 1905, the Cordner name has loomed large over the league across many eras. Even today, through Harriet Cordner — who played nine games for Richmond in this year's AFLW season after three years with Melbourne — the name remains prominent at the highest level of the game.
The name is generally synonymous with the Melbourne Football Club, especially some of its more successful eras. Don Cordner (right) played in two premierships for the Demons, including one as captain in 1948, a season in which he also won a Brownlow Medal. His brothers Denis and Ted Junior also played in Grand Final wins under the 'grand old flag' colours, while their father Ted Senior was one of only eight footballers who played 60 or more games for University in the club's short-lived stint as a VFL team. In the 1980s the Cordner name returned to Melbourne with David playing 53 games for the Demons from 1982 to 1897 before he rounded out his career with five games for Sydney.
Not all of the members of the Cordner family had illustrious careers, however. John Cordner, younger brother of Ted, Don and Denis, played just six games for Melbourne in 1961, while Alan Cordner, cousin of Harry and Ted senior, failed to establish himself in three games at Geelong in 1911-12. He did appear to be doing so at Collingwood (20 games in 1913-14), but he enlisted when World War 1 broke out and lost his life at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, less than six months after his last match.
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Larry Cordner (left), Alan's half-brother, played only a single game of VFL football in 1933 (almost 20 years after Alan's last), but looking at his circumstances, it seems he was very unlucky not have played more. Born in Warrnambool, Larry was educated at Scotch College, where he became a star full forward in the school football side. He came under the notice of Melbourne Football Club, and trained with the Fuchsias in the pre-season of 1932.
Ultimately the Fuchsias did not add Larry to their list, and he was trialling for Hawthorn a year later. After kicking five goals in a practice match against St Kilda, Cordner was granted a clearance from Scotch and added to Hawthorn's primary list at the beginning of the 1933 VFL season. He was forced to bide his time in the reserves for the first two months of the season, but was finally given a chance at senior VFL football in the Mayblooms' Round 10 match against Collingwood.
The first half of the match was a disaster, as Collingwood kicked 12 goals to one and took a 59-point lead into the long break. But Larry Cordner's — and the Hawks' — fortunes took a turn for the better as soon as play resumed:
"Hawthorn forced the ball down to Cordner, who kicked truly for Hawthorn's second goal, the first having been scored in the first few minutes of the game."
— Alan Rattray, the Sporting Globe, July 1, 1933.
But while the Mayblooms went on to play much better football in the final two quarters (kicking four goals to the Magpies' three), Larry Cordner's good fortune ended almost as soon as he'd kicked the first goal of his senior career. He was forced from the field with what was described in the Argus on the following Monday morning as a "displaced collarbone".¹
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His 1933 season derailed, Cordner remained on Hawthorn's list, returning to the Mayblooms second eighteen in the early stages of the 1934 season. After kicking seven goals in the Mayblooms' thrilling three-point win over Melbourne in Round 2, Cordner must have given himself a big chance of finally being selected for a second senior match, especially after Hawthorn's senior side was thrashed by Melbourne to the tune of 89 points.
Hawthorn's selection committee did indeed make wholesale changes — eight of them. Amazingly, though, Larry Cordner was not one of the inclusions. The Mayblooms' senior side copped another thrashing, this time against Collingwood but Cordner was still not considered for selection, and he was not provided with another chance to prove himself at VFL level. He was left to rue what might have been had he not displaced his collarbone in that fateful first match.
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As half-brother Alan (left) had done in 1914, Larry Cordner enlisted for service after the outbreak of World War II. Fortunately he did not suffer the same fate as Alan, and he later became a stock agent, living until 1992 when he passed away aged 81.
Like other members of the Cordner family, Larry's talents extended beyond football. He played district cricket for Hawthorn East-Melbourne, and his talents as a leg spinner earned him first class selection for Victoria early in January 1931. Touted as potentially "the next Arthur Mailey"², in his second match a few weeks later when Victoria took on the visiting West Indians, Cordner took five wickets, including the prize wicket of George Headley, widely considered to be one of the greatest batsmen of all time, even now.
Cordner then went onto save the match for the Vics, making 30 not out as the match ended in a draw with Victoria nine wickets down when the match ended. Surprisingly, despite his efforts with ball and bat, Larry Cordner played just one further first class match, and even that was not until 1934.
In football and in cricket, Laurence Osmaston 'Larry' Cordner made a small contribution at the elite level of both sports. With a little bit of luck, though, his story could have been vastly different, in either or even both of those pursuits.
Larry Cordner's story, and those of many other one-game players, will be featured in the forthcoming book, The One And Only — Stories of V/AFL players whose first game was their last, by Andrew Gigacz and Mic Rees.
Footnotes
1. The MCC Library's Journal, The Yorker, provides a slightly different version of events in its Spring 2019 edition: “After injuring an ankle in that match his [Cordner's] employer forced him to choose between football and work and he opted for the latter.” According to the journal's endnotes, "Ray Webster provided information on Laurence Ormaston Cordner from the upcoming publication The Dictionary of Australian First Class cricketers. Larry Cordner’s daughter Jane Heazlewood also confirmed this story." Cordner's injury differs in this version from the displaced collarbone reported in both The Age and The Argus. And while the story of the ultimatum made by his employer may indeed be true, Cordner definitely played football for Hawthorn's Second Eighteen in 1934.
2. Arthur Mailey played in 21 Test matches for Australia between 1920 and 1926, taking 99 Test wickets with his leg-break bowling, including 36 in the 1920–21 Ashes series.
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