Tom Fitzmaurice

Tom Fitzmaurice
Personal information
Full name	Tom Fitzmaurice
Date of birth	7 July 1898
Date of death	25 December 1977 (aged 79)
Original team(s)	East Melbourne CYMS
Height / weight	192cm / 96kg
Position(s)	Defender / Forward
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1918–1924 1925–1928 1932–1935 Total -	Essendon Geelong North Melbourne	085 0(30) 049 0(20) 054 (196) 188 (246)
Coaching career
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1928 1934 Total -	Geelong North Melbourne	18 (6–12–0) 08 0(0–8–0) 26 (6–20–0)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1935.
Career highlights
Essendon premierships 1923, 1924 Essendon best and fairest 1922, 1923, 1924 Geelong premiership 1925 Geelong captain-coach 1928 North Melbourne joint captain-coach 1934–1935 North Melbourne leading goalkicker 1932, 1934 Victorian representative 12 matches New South Wales representative 1 match

Tom Fitzmaurice (7 July 1898 – 25 December 1977) was an Australian rules footballer in the (then) Victorian Football League (VFL).

A brilliant centre halfback, he commenced his career with Essendon Football Club 1918. Transferred to Sydney in 1921 with his employment, Fitzmaurice played that seasons in the local competition and captained New South Wales against Victoria and Tasmania. He rejoined Essendon in 1922 and later formed part of their very successful 1923 and 1924 premiership teams. In the famous Essendon "mosquito fleet" (so called because of the half dozen players 168 cm or under) Fitzmaurice was the tallest member of the side at 189 cm.

Fitzmaurice left Essendon after the controversy at the end of the 1924 season when he felt that several Essendon players had deliberately lost a match against Victorian Football Association premiers Footscray.^[1]

He played in a premiership team at Geelong Football Club in his first year. Leaving Geelong after 1928, he played with Mortlake and then the VFA side, Yarraville. He returned to the VFL in 1932, playing with North Melbourne. Moving to the forward lines he became their leading goalkicker for three seasons.

In 1996 Fitzmaurice was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

References

1. {{url=http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/ASSH%20Bulletins/No%2030/ASSHBulletin30d.pdf |title=The 1924 Championship Game: did the Dons play dead?|author=Dale James Blair|publication-place=Victoria|date=June 1999|accessdate=23 June 2013|Publisher=ASSH Bulletin|issue=30}}

• Ross, John (1999). The Australian Football Hall of Fame. Australia: HarperCollinsPublishers. p. 67. ISBN 0-7322-6426-X.

External links

• Tom Fitzmaurice's profile from AustralianFootball.com
• AFL Hall of Fame