Australian Football

Memorably nicknamed 'Gunboat', Glen Smith, unsurprisingly, was not wont to take any prisoners while out on the football field. A member of Claremont-Cottesloe's inaugural league team in 1926, he continued with the club for 10 seasons, playing a total of 111 senior games. In modern day parlance he would be described as a tagger in that he was frequently required to sacrifice his own game by concentrating on curbing the influence of one of the opposition team's stars. His method of doing this left much to be desired in terms of its sophistication, and certainly did not endear him to fans of opposing sides, but it was frequently effective.

In one match against East Fremantle, Smith was given the job of keeping 'Nipper' Truscott, Old Easts' champion centreman, quiet. His approach to the task left little to the imagination, and even less to chance: Truscott made an early departure from the fray aboard a stretcher, and the 17 remaining East Fremantle players spent the rest of the match trying to even the score.

Smith's relentlessly vigorous approach belied his somewhat meagre physical stature. Moreover, away from football he earned a living as a tailor, a vocation in which meticulous attention to detail is paramount, and there is scant room for heavy-handedness. Not that the club was averse to putting this talent to use, too; in 1926 it engaged Smith to produce the team's shorts.

Author - John Devaney