Australian Football

After playing for Hotham (North Melbourne) during the VFA’s inaugural season of 1877, Joe Traynor was one of several top Victorian players enticed to cross to South Australia by Arthur Diamond, manager of Falk and Company’s wholesale jewellery warehouse in Adelaide. Diamond, himself originally from Victoria, offered the Victorian footballers employment, in return for which they agreed to line up with Norwood, the club with which he was associated. Norwood’s dominance of the SAFA between 1878 and 1883 was largely attributable to this importation of prominent footballers from across the border, and of these, Joe Traynor was certainly among the best. 

Dubbed ‘the prince of followers’ during his career with the Redlegs, he invariably made the ball his object, and was renowned for his even-tempered, pre-eminently fair approach, although he was also known to air his feelings rather volubly on occasion. Arguably his finest moment in football came against Victorian at Montefiore Hill in 1880 when his place-kicked goal gave the Redlegs victory not only in the match, but in that year’s premiership. Traynor, who played intercolonial football for South Australia on four occasions, was an all round sportsmen who also contributed to the supremacy of Norwood’s cricket team during the 1880s.

Author - John Devaney