THURGOOD, Albert

Many believe Albert Thurgood was the greatest footballer of all time; at the very least he was certainly the greatest player of his generation. Despite having seen players of the calibre of Hadyn Bunton, Bob Pratt, Laurie Nash, Dick Reynolds, John Coleman and Ted Whitten, famous football historian, Cec Mullen, still rated Thurgood as the best.

Although Victoria was in the grip of a severe economic depression, crowds flocked to Essendon games just to see him play; some, according to The Age newspaper in 1893, come from as far away as Ballarat and Bendigo.

Thurgood came to Essendon in 1892 from Brighton Grammar as a schoolboy champion. He had been sought by most other clubs and in fact St Kilda actually selected him in 1891, but he refused to play with them.

He quickly established his class and his all round play was undoubtedly the most prominent factor in Essendon's Association premiership successes from 1892 to 1894.

Thurgood was the most spectacular high-mark of his time and was an artist in ball control and balance. Being a brilliant runner made him fast in ground play, he could get rid of the ball with either foot and was a magnificent kick. In a game against South Australia in Adelaide in 1894, he kicked four goals with his right foot and four with his left.

His kicking feats became legendary and he achieved extraordinary distances with drop, place and punt kicks. He is reported to have drop kicked 90 yards (82.3 m) at practice. On at least one occasion he punt kicked the ball over 80 yards (73.2 m). He place-kicked the ball a 107 measured yards in a contest at EMCG in 1899, the longest recorded kick.

Thurgood was also a renowned goalkicker and headed the Association goalkicking from 1892 to 1894, and the League's list in 1900 and 1902. These achievements are even more remarkable because he headed these lists while playing at centre-half-forward, one of the few players to do so. He was Essendon's leading goalkicker in each of his eight full seasons.

He was the first player to ever kick over 50 goals and he consistently kicked most of the team's score. In one game in 1893 he kicked 12 out of the side's 14 goals - a record - and then the next week kicked 9 out of 10. Overall, he played 209 games and kicked a mammoth 714 goals in an era when scores were generally low.

Thurgood was named Champion of the Colony in 1893, 1894 and 1901. He was an inter-colonial representative in 1891, 1893 and 1894.

"Albert The Great" stunned the football world in 1895 by moving to Fremantle, Western Australia. He was the leading Western Australian goalkicker in 1895, 1896 and 1897. Meanwhile Essendon was unable to fill the massive gap he left and fell to sixth place in 1895, a disappointing result after their four successive premierships from 1891 to 1894.

Thurgood returned to Melbourne in 1898 but residential rules prevented him re-joining Essendon until 1899. It took him a while to regain his former greatness, but he is credited with bringing the premiership to Essendon in 1901. In the semi final he kicked five of the side's six goals from centre half-forward to win the game. His game was described as one of the finest ever in a League final. Then he kicked half of his team's six goals in the Grand Final to be one of the stars of the game.

In 1902, he became the first Essendon player to be suspended when he was outed for three matches for striking. During the games he missed, a mystery player called "Goodthur" appeared on Essendon's team lists, although football historians, Michael Maplestone and Stephen Rogers, believe "Goodthur" to have been Fred Mann, not Thurgood.

Thurgood played an uncharacteristically bad game in the 1902 losing Grand Final, leading some officials to wonder if he had been bribed to "play dead". He was cleared in the subsequent inquiry but retired at the end of the season.

He made a third return to football in 1905, and sought a clearance to Collingwood where he thought he could help the younger club with his experience. It was refused and in late 1906, when Essendon was severely depleted by injuries, he came back for eight more games. His career had an anticlimactic end when he injured his ankle in the losing semi-final against Fitzroy.

His cousin, Jimmy Thurgood, played three games for Essendon in 1897.

After retiring from football, Thurgood became well known in business and racing circles. He was also an Essendon patron from 1919 until 1926.

Thurgood was rated at number 9 in the Champions of Essendon, and he was one of the inaugural inductees into the Club's Hall of Fame.

"Albert The Great" was killed in a car accident on 8th May, 1927. He was only 57 and his passing was mourned by the entire football community. The 1927 Annual Report declared he had "often been proclaimed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, player of all time".