Australian Football

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Key Facts

Full name
Henry Coles

Known as
Henry Coles

Born
11 March 1951 (age 74)

Age at first & last AFL game
First game: 20y 23d
Last game: 29y 144d

Height and weight
Height: 171 cm
Weight: 73 kg

Senior clubs
Collingwood; Melbourne

Jumper numbers
Collingwood: 4, 36, 37
Melbourne: 37, 13, 3

Recruited from
Collingwood (1975)

Henry Coles

Advanced stats
Club
League
Career span
Games
Goals
Avg
Win %
AKI
AHB
AMK
BV
CollingwoodV/AFL1971-197544481.0970%9.591.661.750
MelbourneV/AFL1975-1980771061.3834%14.975.603.3117
V/AFL1971-19801211541.2747%13.024.172.7417
Total1971-19801211541.2747%13.024.172.7417

AFL: 8,317th player to appear, 1,929th most games played, 640th most goals kickedCollingwood: 716th player to appear, 378th most games played, 174th most goals kickedMelbourne: 949th player to appear, 228th most games played, 77th most goals kicked

Something of a volatile and controversial figure, Henry Coles was also no mean footballer. Playing mainly as a rover, he was plucky, rumbustious and quite highly skilled.

Hailing from Kingsbury, he commenced his senior VFL career with Collingwood in 1971 and had played 44 games and kicked 48 goals by the time he crossed to Melbourne midway through the 1975 season. (He was actually the first VFL player to switch clubs mid-year since Collingwood’s John Kerr in 1958.)

His form with the Demons was generally impressive, at least for his first three seasons. However, he was a fiery character, and also had to front up to the Tribunal on occasion, while in 1980 he was fined $600 by the club after indulging in a spot of fisticuffs with Melbourne’s captain-coach Carl Ditterich. The Demons phase of his career saw him add 77 games and 106 goals to his respective tallies. He was the club’s leading goal kicker in 1978 with 33 goals, and he represented Victoria against the ACT the same year.

Author - John Devaney

Sources

Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers by Russell Holmesby & Jim Main; Wikipedia article; http://demonwiki.org/Henry+Coles

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.