South Fremantle Forevermore - Episode 10 - John Todd

Celebrate club legend the GREAT John Todd, Player and Fairest and Best 1955, 1958, 1961, Captain Coach 1958, All Australian 1961, and join our Bulldogs family today membership.sff...
HONOURS: Sandover Medal 1955; south Fremantle fairest and best 1955, 58. 61; All-Australian 1961; WA coach 1975, 1983-85, 87, 89, 95, 98; West coast coach 1988-89; All Australian coach 1983-84; Advance Australia award 1985; Order of Australia 1986; John Leonard Medal 1990; WAFL life member 1991; West Australian Sporting Hall of Fame 1997; AFL Hall of Fame 2003.
Before the 1954 grand final, fans got a sneak preview of two men who shaped football in WA. Running around for the South Fremantle reserves were 16 year old high flying forward John Gerovich and left footed 16 year old John Todd, who kicked seven goals on debut. Almost 50 years on, Todd ranks alongside Graham Farmer, bill Walker and Barry Cable as the biggest names in WA football. A year after playing in the reserves grand final, he was a 17 year old Sandover medalist, polling 25 votes to beat Farmer (then 20) by four votes.
Todd seriously injured his right knee in his second season of senior football and played most of his football wearing a primitive knee brace imported from America. He still became one of the great players and rates alongside jerry Dolan, John Leonard and Phil Matson as WA’s great coaches. It is mind-boggling that he won All Australian selection in the 1961 national carnival in Brisbane, and three club fairest and bests while on one good leg. But, his greatest impact has been as a coach. In 1959 he became the youngest coach in the history of the WAFL when appointed captain-coach of South Fremantle at age 20. By the time he retired at Swan Districts at the end of the 2001 season, he had coached three clubs to six premierships. He also led WA to victory in national football titles in 1983-84, was the second coach of West Coast and the first to take the fledgling club into the VFL finals in 1988.
Our “South Fremantle Forevermore” project aims to capture the voices and the stories of our club champions to ensure they are preserved, so they can forever contribute to the future of our great club, and generations of Bulldogs to come.
Each month we’ll bring you a new episode with Mal Brown, Colin Beard, John Colgan, Noel Carter, Ernie Grose, and more, to come.
Please search for Episode 1 Steve Marsh, Episode 2 Stephen Michael, Episode 3 Tony Parentich, Episode 4 Toby McGrath, Episode 5 Tom Grljusich, Episode 6 Hassa Mann, Episode 7 Laurie Green, Episode 8 Marty Atkins, and Episode 9 Brian Ciccotosto, which are also available on our TH-cam channel.
Thank you to our mighty players, past and present. Thank you to our loyal and dedicated members, staff and volunteers. Thank you to committee member Jane Grljusich, and our Patron and Number 1 Ticket Holder Eileen Bond, for making this project possible. Join our Bulldogs family today membership.sff... #southfremantleforevermore