Athol Webb

DOB: 13 September, 1935
Debut: Round 12, 1955 against St. Kilda at MCG
Last Game: Round 12, 1959 against Richmond at MCG

Games: 74
Goals: 146
Career Statistics (external link)

Wins	Draws	Losses	Winning %
58	1	15	78.37

From: Scottsdale

Number: 15 1955-1959

Honours:
Premiership Player 1956, 1957
Grand Final team 1958
150 Heroes selection

Recruited from Scottsdale where he had won a Best and Fairest in 1953, Webb was an elusive forward who was often used by Norm Smith as the decoy for Robert B Johnson.

The forward who played in a winning side nearly 79% of the time during his career, ranking him in the top twenty players of all time, nearly didn't make it to the VFL at all. He was training with the Demons from the start of 1955 but was refused a clearance by the Tasmanian League who were involved in a spat with the VFL. Eventually the league relented, citing "special circumstances", and he officially became a Melbourne player. Though he only played eight games that year, those appearances stamped him as a player to watch for the future.

In 1956 he suffered a severely bruised chest and bruised shins when he ran at full speed into a goalpost during the Round 6 clash against North Melbourne. That year he booted five goals in the Grand Final victory over Collingwood.

In 1957 he played for a Victorian B side against Tasmania and contributed three goals to the winning Grand Final effort.

He twice injured an ankle outside of games in 1959. The first injury took place at training, but the second was the result of tripping on a faulty lino at a club dinner dance. He played just five games for the year.

At the end of 1959 Webb was offered a highly paid deal to move to West Perth, and looked sure to take it before accepting a job to captain/coach New Norfolk in the Tasmanian league. He then moved on to East Launceston.

In 1965 he was in Sydney player/coaching Western Suburbs.