Australian Football

AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game

 

Key Facts

Full name
Walter Henry Lee

Known as
Dick Lee

Nickname
Dick

Born
19 March 1889

Place of birth
Collingwood, VIC (3066)

Died
11 September 1968 (aged 79)

Place of death
Northcote, VIC (3070)

Occupation
Carrier

Age at first & last AFL game
First game: 17y 89d
Last game: 33y 209d

Height and weight
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 76 kg

Senior clubs
Collingwood

Jumper numbers
Collingwood: 10, 19, 13

State of origin
VIC

Family links
Ernie Lumsden (Cousin)

Dick Lee

ClubLeagueCareer spanGamesGoalsAvgWin %AKIAHBAMKBV
CollingwoodV/AFL1906-19222307073.0765%0
Total1906-19222307073.0765%0

AFL: 1,168th player to appear, 393rd most games played, 25th most goals kickedCollingwood: 118th player to appear, 20th most games played, 3rd most goals kicked

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Mark-DickLee

Right

One of the first of the game's truly great full forwards, Walter 'Dick' Lee's VFL career spanned 230 games over 17 seasons and spawned 707 goals. The last of those 707 goals came with Lee's final kick in League football, in Collingwood's losing 1922 Challenge Final against Fitzroy.

Right

+

Small (175cm) and lightweight (76kg) by the standards of modern full forwards Lee was nevertheless a commanding figure on the ground, and "matched spectacular, high-flying aerobatics with superb ground-level skills and unerring accuracy in front of goal, whether by punt or place kick".¹ Testimony to this accuracy is afforded by the tale that Lee was a frequent visitor to an amusement hall which had a game which required participants to kick at a target from various difficult angles; in the end, the proprietors allegedly had to bar Lee from participating owing to his near faultless proficiency.²

Perhaps more than any other leading club, Collingwood has a tradition of producing full forwards of the highest quality - a tradition which originated almost a century ago with a lightweight place kicking genius whose exploits arguably did more than those of any one else to transform full forward into the glamorous, distinctive position it remains to this day.

Author - John Devaney

Footnotes

  1. The Encyclopedia of League Footballers by Jim Main and Russell Holmesby, page 276.
  2. The Clubs by Garrie Hutchinson and John Ross, page 80.

Sources

Full Points Footy Publications

Footnotes

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