In Jim Main's series, 'Swan Songs', on great players from the past, this week he talks to Fred Goldsmith...

FRED GOLDSMITH
Born: August 20, 1932
Played: 1951-59
Games: 119
Goals: 107

Although Fred Goldsmith won the 1955 Brownlow Medal, he rates being inducted into the Swans’ Hall of Fame in 2009 as the highlight of his football career.

“It was magnificent and the best part of all was that I didn’t have a clue I would be honoured that night,” he recalled.

“I went to the function (in Melbourne) thinking it would be a great chance to meet up with other former players and to have a quiet, social beer.

“A young lady came over to my table halfway through the function to tell me I would be on stage in about 10 minutes. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had never been so honoured in my life.”

Goldsmith was the pre-eminent full-back of his era and was a regular Victorian representative who also could pinch-hit up forward.

Recruited from local club Spotswood, he made his South Melbourne debut as an 18-year-old, against Geelong at Kardinia Park.

He signed for the Swans after originally being wooed by VFA (now VFL) club Williamstown and was part of a two-player deal, with South swooping at the same time to sign Goldsmith’s good mate Bill Gunn.

In fact, Gunn told a Swans official he would sign only if Goldsmith did the same. Their reward? A pair of South socks each.

While Gunn was an almost instant hit as a centreman/half-forward with the Swans after making his debut in 1952, Goldsmith struggled early in his career.

In fact, he had a tougher initiation than most when a kick by Richmond full-back Don “Mopsy” broke his right ankle. The injury put Goldsmith out of action for three months and he did not become a regular player for two years.

Goldsmith was so dejected he applied for a clearance to then VFA club Yarraville, only for Swans’ reserves coach and 1940 Brownlow Medal winner Herb Matthews to suggest to senior coach Laurie Nash that Goldsmith be tried at full-back.

The rest, as they say, is history, with Goldsmith’s brilliant high marking and long kicking making him an outstanding key defender - albeit an unorthodox one.

Goldsmith was such a superb aerialist that he often took on rival full-forwards in marking duels, and usually beat them through his uncanny judgement and tremendous leap.

No full-back had won a Brownlow Medal until Goldsmith triumphed in 1955, pipping Essendon rover Bill Hutchison by one vote.

It now is part of football folklore that Goldsmith was at work as a fireman at the Eastern Hill station when he heard on radio that he had won football’s most prestigious individual award. Goldsmith at first thought his workmates had been pulling his leg but, when the win became official, he was given the rest of the night off work to celebrate.

The win also makes Goldsmith the subject of this popular, but trick question: Q. Who was Hawthorn’s first Brownlow Medal winner? A. Fred Goldsmith.
Puzzled? Well, Goldsmith was working as a barman at the Hawthorn Social Club in the 1980s, well before Hawk Col Austen was in 1989 awarded a retrospective Brownlow after originally tying with South’s Ron Clegg in 1949.

Goldsmith explained: “Hawthorn CEO John Lauritz therefore liked to tell everyone that I was the Hawks’ first Brownlow Medallist.”

But, of course, Goldy is a Swan through and through and follows the red and white’s fortunes with great passion.

Unfortunately, arthritis in both knees will prevent him attending this Saturday night’s Hall of Fame event, but he will be there in spirit and asks everyone there to have a beer or two for him.