Norm Smith

Norman Walter Smith (21 November 1915 – 29 July 1973) was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After more than 200 games as a player with and , Smith began a twenty-year coaching career, including a fifteen-year stint at Melbourne. A revered figure in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Smith is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential coaches in the game's history, as well as having been considered by many one of the finest full-forwards of his era. Like legendary Collingwood coach Jock McHale, Smith was seen as able to take young players of different backgrounds and mould them into a disciplined team. Along with his brother Len, Smith's ability to think innovatively when it came to tactics had a profound influence on the game, most notably through his protégé Ron Barassi. Smith played in four premierships with Melbourne and then coached the club to six further premierships in the 1950s and 1960s, but his sensational sacking midway through the 1965 season (when Melbourne were the reigning premiers) gave rise to what is known as the "Curse of Norm Smith". The supposed curse lasted 57 years until Melbourne defeated the Western Bulldogs in the 2021 AFL Grand Final. In 1996, Smith was chosen as the coach of the AFL Team of the Century.

Norman Walter Smith (21 November 1915 – 29 July 1973) was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After more than 200 games as a player with and , Smith began a twenty-year coaching career, including a fifteen-year stint at Melbourne. A revered figure in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Smith is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential coaches in the game's history, as well as having been considered by many one of the finest full-forwards of his era. Like legendary Collingwood coach Jock McHale, Smith was seen as able to take young players of different backgrounds and mould them into a disciplined team. Along with his brother Len, Smith's ability to think innovatively when it came to tactics had a profound influence on the game, most notably through his protégé Ron Barassi. Smith played in four premierships with Melbourne and then coached the club to six further premierships in the 1950s and 1960s, but his sensational sacking midway through the 1965 season (when Melbourne were the reigning premiers) gave rise to what is known as the "Curse of Norm Smith". The supposed curse lasted 57 years until Melbourne defeated the Western Bulldogs in the 2021 AFL Grand Final. In 1996, Smith was chosen as the coach of the AFL Team of the Century.

Playing career

A brilliant all-round sportsman in his youth, Smith played first-grade district cricket and Australian football. His first club football was for Dennis, which played in the sub-district competition, where his brother Len had started his career. When scouts for VFL club Melbourne arrived at the Smith household to sign Len, Victor Smith suggested that young Norm might make the grade as well. Melbourne were ambitiously rebuilding their side and Smith made his debut under legendary coach Frank 'Checker' Hughes in 1935. Ironically, while Norm's career blossomed at Melbourne, brother Len failed to nail down a regular place and he moved to the VFA and later to Fitzroy to further his career.

Coaching career

Disappointingly for Smith, the committee decided (by a single vote) to award the job to ex-Melbourne premiership skipper, Allan LaFontaine. Anxious to begin coaching, Smith made an emotionally difficult decision to transfer to Fitzroy as captain-coach. His older brother Len was already there as coach of the Under 19's. Smith played only seventeen games with the 'Roys before retiring as a player in 1950. His time at Fitzroy was a mixed bag: the team was competitive without making the finals. Meanwhile, Melbourne were struggling and LaFontaine resigned after three years. So in 1952, Smith returned to Melbourne as coach. Benefiting from the recruitment of some of the best players in the club's history, Smith and Melbourne dominated the VFL for a decade, during which the club won six premierships: 1955-56-57, 1959–60 and 1964.

Coaching style

A stickler for team discipline, Smith was variously called the 'Demon Dictator' and the 'Martinet of Melbourne'. His canniness and brushed-back auburn hair earned him another nickname: the 'Red Fox'. Smith built his success on an espirit de corps, creating close-knit teams during Melbourne's years of greatness that were the envy of the other eleven clubs. Many sought to emulate his methods and create a similar atmosphere for their own clubs. Norm and Len Smith (who coached Fitzroy from 1958 to 1962) led the move toward a quicker, play-on style of football. Melbourne sides under Smith were fast, disciplined, fit and confident. The only real lapse of discipline came in the 1958 Grand Final when, attempting to equal Collingwood's great four-in-a-row record, the Demons were baited into losing their concentration by a fanatical Collingwood team.

Bibliography

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1367653268 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.