Australian Football

When Port Moresby-born Bruce Winter began to stake a claim for a senior place in 1971, legendary Sturt coach Jack Oatey said of him, “He’s strong, a good overhead mark, he’s quick, he kicks well with his right foot, and he is more than useful with the left”¹. In other words, he already possessed all of the main attributes necessary to succeed as a league footballer, and over the course of the next 16 seasons Winter would demonstrate these traits with commendable consistency in 353 games with two clubs.

As his career wore on, Winter would add intelligence and strong qualities of leadership to the melting pot, characteristics he would later display to good effect as a league coach when he steered Woodville-West Torrens to the 1993 SANFL flag. Hardly the most spectacular or eye-catching of players, he was the personification of dependability and assurance - the sort of qualities which win premierships.

During his career, Bruce Winter played in three SANFL premiership sides: 1974 with Sturt, and 1982 and 1984 with Norwood. Arguably his best performance in a Grand Final came in 1978, however, when he was a member of the Sturt team cruelly beaten at the death by a Norwood side determined to celebrate the club’s centenary season in style. Winter was obviously impressed by what he saw, because he moved to Norwood the following year, playing the final 178 games of his career with the Redlegs, as well as twice being selected to represent South Australia.

Author - John Devaney