Charlie Sutton

Charlie Sutton
Personal information
Full name Charles Alfred George Sutton
Date of birth (1924-04-03)3 April 1924
Place of birth Rushworth, Victoria
Date of death 5 June 2012(2012-06-05) (aged 88)
Place of death Footscray, Victoria
Original team(s) Spotswood Citizens
Height 169 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Weight 87 kg (192 lb)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1942–1956 Footscray 173 (65)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
Victoria 18 (12)
Coaching career3
Years Club Games (W–L–D)
1951–1957 Footscray 123 (72–50–2)
1967–1968 Footscray 038 0(9–29–0)
Total 162 (81–79–2)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1956.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1968.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Charlie Sutton (3 April 1924 – 5 June 2012) was an Australian rules footballer who represented Footscray in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Although he served the club for many years as coach and committee man, he is perhaps best known for captaining the Bulldogs to their first VFL premiership in 1954.

Recruited from Spotswood, Sutton was a tough, nuggety footballer who embodied the club's fighting spirit. He played as a rover and half forward, but it was as a back pocket player that he made his name. In 1950, he finished equal third in the Brownlow Medal count and won the Con Weickhardt Trophy (as it was then known) as the Bulldogs' best and fairest player that season.[1]

He was captain-coach of the team from 1951 to 1955.

After his retirement as a player, Sutton coached Footscray from 1956 until 9 July 1957, when he was unceremoniously dismissed and replaced by Ted Whitten. Sutton later returned to coach Footscray in 1967 (replacing Ted Whitten) and 1968 (after which he resigned having decided that the ever-increasing demands of coaching clashed far too much with his business of running a hotel at Yarraville).

In 1978 Sutton took over the position of President of the Footscray Football Club when Dick Collinson resigned.[2]

He has the Western Bulldogs best and fairest award, the Charles Sutton Medal, named in his honour.

In 1996 Sutton was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Sutton died in 2012 at the age of 88.[3]

  1. ^ "Charlie Sutton Footscray's Best". The Age. No. 29, 757. Victoria, Australia. 11 September 1950. p. 12. Retrieved 23 January 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ Sheahan, Michael (30 August 1978). "Collinson quits Dogs". The Age. p. 30. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  3. ^ Blake, Martin (5 June 2012). "Bulldogs legend Charlie Sutton dies". The Age. Retrieved 5 June 2012.