Australian Football

"An intelligent ruckman who gives his rovers an armchair ride."¹

An awesome amalgam of height (200cm), strength, aggression, mobility and skill, Vic Aanensen should arguably have achieved even more than he did during the course of a twelve-season, 169-game senior career with two clubs. He began that senior career with Port Melbourne in 1970, having progressed from the club’s Thirds. In 1973 he crossed to South Melbourne where, over the course of the ensuing four seasons, he played 40 VFL games and kicked 30 goals, without ever really enhancing the reputation he had won in the VFA as a dominating ruckman of the highest rank.

Returning to the Borough in 1977, Aanensen produced the best and most consistent football of his career, playing a key role in the club’s 1977, 1980 and 1981 premiership wins. He also won club best and fairest awards on three occasions, and the Liston Trophy in 1979 and 1981. At the end of the 1982 season, however, while still capable of performing at his imperious best, he left Port Melbourne, and the VFA, for a life in the country at Sale.

His comparative failure at VFL level means that he cannot be regarded as a bona fide champion, but he was undoubtedly one of Port Melbourne’s favourite sons, a status confirmed in 2003 by his inclusion as second ruckman in the club’s official ‘Team of the Twentieth Century’.

Author - John Devaney