Syd Coventry

Syd Coventry
Personal information
Full name	Sydney Alfred Coventry
Date of birth	(1899-06-13)13 June 1899
Place of birth	Greensborough, Victoria
Date of death	10 November 1976(1976-11-10) (aged 77)
Place of death	Fairfield, Victoria
Original team(s)	Diamond Creek Football Club
Height / weight	182cm / 86kg
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1922–1934	Collingwood	227 (62)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
1922–1934	Victoria	27
Coaching career3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1935–1937	Footscray	36 (8–26–2)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1934. 3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1937.
Career highlights
Collingwood premiership captain 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 AFL Grand Final 1922, 1925, 1926 Collingwood Team of the Century, captain Brownlow Medal 1927 Collingwood captain 1927–1934 Copeland Trophy 1927, 1932 Champion of The Colony 1927, 1929 Australian Football Hall of Fame 1996

Syd Coventry (13 June 1899 – 10 November 1976) was an Australian rules footballer.^[1][2]

St Kilda

Originally from Diamond Creek, Victoria, Coventry journeyed across the Bass Strait after the First World War to work in the mines at Queenstown, Tasmania, taking with him a reputation as a fine footballer. While still in Queenstown he was approached by St Kilda who wanted him to play for them in 1921.

Collingwood

Syd duly agreed, but when he returned to Melbourne he was persuaded by his younger brother Gordon Coventry, who had just finished his first season with Collingwood, to reconsider. Apart from the issue of family loyalty, there was the small matter of the excessive distance between Diamond Creek and St Kilda to think of.

The upshot of it all was that Syd Coventry elected to throw in his lot with Collingwood, whereupon St Kilda, not surprisingly, screamed "foul!" The VFL Permits Committee was called in to adjudicate, and Coventry was faced with the choice of playing with St Kilda, or sitting out of football for twelve months so that he could join the Woods. He opted for the latter course of action, and in 1922 he started out on an illustrious thirteen season, 227 game league career with Collingwood.

Despite standing only 180 cm in height, Syd Coventry played mainly as a ruckman, where his aggression, vigour and dynamism more than compensated for any deficiency in stature. A born leader, he captained the Magpies from 1927 until he moved to Footscray as coach at the end of the 1934 season. He thus enjoyed the unique privilege of captaining four successive VFL premiership teams.

Often at his best when the going was rough, one of Syd Coventry's finest performances came on a waterlogged MCG in the 1927 grand final, when Collingwood and Richmond between them could manage only 3 goals for the match. The 1927 season also saw him win both the Brownlow Medal and Collingwood's best and fairest award. He repeated the second achievement five years later.

Coventry till this day remains the only Premiership Captain to win a Brownlow in the same year. For good measure, he was named the best player in that year's Grand Final.

As a Captain, Syd led Collingwood Football Club in 144 games. In that period Collingwood won 111 games, drew twice and lost 31 times. A winning ratio 77 percent, an VFL/AFL record.

A virtual ever-present in VFL representative teams for most of his career, Coventry made a total of 27 interstate appearances. His eventual departure from Victoria Park to coach Footscray came with the blessing of the Collingwood committee, but only on the proviso that he did not continue as a player.^[3]

Footscray

After two unsuccessful and unhappy years with Footscray (1934–1935), Syd Coventry returned to Collingwood in an administrative capacity.

Collingwood committeeman

He served as club vice-president from 1939 to 1949, and as president between 1950 and 1962. From 1963 until 1976 he was Collingwood's patron, rounding off more than fifty years of involvement with the club.

In 1969 the Collingwood Football Club named the newly built social club stand at Victoria Park S.A Coventry Pavillion.

In 1992 the Melbourne Cricket Club named Gate 7 after Coventry (& his brother) as part of the Great Southern Stand development at the MCG.

In 1996 Coventry was inducted into the first batch of players and officials in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

2 of Syd's sons played for Collingwood. Hugh Coventry played for a year before enlisting in the RAAF and was awarded with a Distinguished Flying Cross. Another son in Syd Coventry, Jr. also played for the club.

References