Laurie Nash
Encyclopedia
Laurence John "Laurie" Nash (2 May 1910 – 24 July 1986) was a Test cricket
er and Australian rules football
er. An inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame
, Nash was a member of South Melbourne
's 1933 premiership team
, captained South Melbourne in 1937 and was the team's leading goal kicker in 1937 and 1945. In cricket, Nash was a fast bowler and hard hitting lower order batsman who played two Test matches for Australia
, taking 10 wickets at 12.80 runs per wicket, and scoring 30 runs at a batting average of 15.
The son of a leading Australian rules footballer of the early twentieth century who had also played cricket against the touring Marylebone Cricket Club
in 1921, Nash was a star sportsman as a boy. Following the family's relocation from Victoria to Tasmania, he began to make a name for himself as both a footballer and a cricketer, and became both one of the earliest professional club cricketers in Australia and one of the first fully professional Australian rules footballers. Nash made his Test cricket debut in 1932, against South Africa and his Victorian Football League
(VFL) debut in 1933.
While Nash had great success in football, he faced opposition from the cricket establishment for his supposedly poor attitude towards authority. This led fellow cricketer Keith Miller
to write that his non-selection as a regular Test player was "the greatest waste of talent in Australian cricket history".
During World War II
Nash rejected offers of a home posting and instead served as a trooper in New Guinea
, stating that he wished to be treated no differently from any other soldier. Following the end of the war, Nash returned to South Melbourne and won the team goal kicking award, although his age and injuries inhibited any return of his previous successes. Nash retired from VFL football at the end of the 1945 season to play and coach in the country before returning to coach South Melbourne in 1953. After retiring, Nash wrote columns for newspapers, was a panellist on football television shows and was a publican before his death in Melbourne, aged 76.
Nash was born in Fitzroy, Victoria
on 2 May 1910, the youngest of three children of Irish Catholic
s Robert
and Mary Nash. He had a brother, Robert Junior, and one sister, Mary, known as Maizie.
Nash belonged to a sporting family; his grandfather Michael Nash and great-uncle Thomas Nash were leading players for Carlton Football Club
in the 1880s, his father Robert captained Collingwood Football Club
and coached Footscray Football Club, and played cricket, opening the bowling for Hamilton
in a match against the 1920–1921 touring English side, while Robert Junior also became a leading footballer in Tasmania
and country Victoria
. Nash's mother was an orphan who was probably adopted several times, allowing historians no opportunity to determine any sporting links on her side of the family. Nash's biographer also claims that former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Sir Walter Nash
and pianist Eileen Joyce
were related to the family.
Nash's father, who had initially worked as a gas stoker, joined the police force in 1913 and served in a number of postings, including Hamilton in western Victoria, taking his family with him. In Hamilton, Nash attended Loreto Convent and began his interest in sport, practising kicking a football made of newspapers and tied together with string.
When Nash Senior was transferred back to Melbourne in 1922, the Nash brothers attended St Ignatius School in the Melbourne working-class suburb of Richmond
, where Nash became best friends with fellow student Tommy Lahiff
, who would also become a leading Australian rules footballer.
Although short and stocky, Nash and his brother Robert Junior developed into star junior sportsmen, excelling at football and cricket, although Nash Senior preferred Laurie to become a cricketer, considering it a better and longer career option and forbid his sons from playing senior football until age 20.
Nash's performance in junior cricket led Victorian district cricket club Fitzroy to sign him for the 1927/28 season. Nash made his first grade debut for Fitzroy as a seventeen year-old and spent two and a half seasons at Fitzroy, earning plaudits for his performances and, until he broke his wrist in a fielding mishap, there were suggestions that he was close to Victorian
selection.
Nash Senior was a member of a group of 600 police who went on strike in 1923 for better wages but was dismissed from the force and required to find another livelihood. Nash Senior went into the hotel business, firstly in Melbourne before eventually moving his family to Tasmania
in 1929 to run the hotel at Parattah
.
In Tasmania, Nash gained work in a Launceston
sport store and made his Tasmanian district cricket debut for the Tamar Cricket Club on 7 December 1929, taking 7 wickets for 29 (7/29) and 1/16. After one more match for Tamar, in which he took 5/41, Nash was chosen in the Northern Tasmania side in the annual match against Southern Tasmania, where he took match figures of 7/40 and top scored in both innings.
These performances led Nash to make his first-class cricket
debut for Tasmania
against Victoria in Launceston on 31 December 1929, taking 2/97, with future Test player Leo O'Brien
his maiden first-class wicket, and scoring 1 and 48 (Tasmania's top score in their second innings).
Four months later, he made his senior football debut for the Roy Cazaly
coached City
side in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA), immediately standing out on account of his skills, blond hair and confidence in his abilities. Nash made the Tasmanian side for the national carnival
in Adelaide
where he won the medal for the most outstanding Tasmanian player of the carnival. Nash played in defence for City while Robert Junior played in the forward line and both were considered sensational.
Between 1930 and 1932 Nash played 45 games for City (including premierships in 1930 and 1932), kicking 14 goals, and winning the Tasman Shields Trophy, awarded to the Best and Fairest player in the NTFA, in 1931 and 1932. Additionally, Nash played 10 games for Northern Tasmania (12 goals) and 5 games for Tasmania at the national carnival.
Nash played for Tasmania against the touring West Indian cricket team
in December 1930. Batting at number three, Nash made 41 and 0 and took 2/87, including bowling Learie Constantine
, who had scored 100 in 65 minutes. Journalists noted that during Constantine's innings, Nash was the only Tasmanian bowler to watch the West Indian closely and take note of his strengths and weaknesses, which led to his eventual success against the batsman.
In September 1932 Nash married Irene Roles in Launceston, with City and Tasmania team mate Ted Pickett
acting as best man. Due to the strict sectarianism of the 1930s, there was some controversy as Irene was a Protestant from one of Launceston's establishment families, and the wedding was held in a Protestant church. For years afterwards, Nash was subjected to a campaign by Catholic clergy to hold a Catholic wedding ceremony to legitimise his marriage but refused.
Laurie and Irene had one child, Noelene, in 1939. Wallish states that it was thought that Laurie sought to have additional children but Irene was opposed.
in a match for Tasmania against Victoria at Launceston. He later claimed that the throw was deliberate and came out of frustration with his fielders. The call for throwing was early in the innings but Nash was able to recover from the incident to take 5/76 out of Victoria's total of 524. Earlier in the same match Nash opened the batting and made 110, his highest first-class score. It has been speculated by cricket historian Bernard Whimpress
that Nash's decision to throw the ball may have been regarded by selectors as "part of a parcel of anti-social behaviours which told against regular selection" for either Australia or Victoria.
Nash was picked for Tasmania in two matches against the touring South Africans in January 1932. He failed to perform in the first match in Launceston, taking 1/68 and 2/45 and scoring 17 and 9. However, Nash had a lively bowling performance in the Hobart match, making the ball come off the wicket at a great pace and gaining match figures of 9/137, including two wickets in consecutive balls and breaking batsman Eric Dalton
's jaw with a vicious bouncer
on the hat-trick ball. South African captain Jock Cameron
praised Nash for his performance as his bowling in the match was thought to be as quick and dangerous as any bowler in the world.
Following the Hobart match Nash was included in the Australian side
to make his Test debut, aged 21 years and 286 days, against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
beginning 12 February 1932. Nash was the first Tasmanian based player chosen to play for Australia since Charles Eady
in 1902 and would be the last until Roger Woolley
debuted in 1983. Also making his Test debut for Australia was batsman Jack Fingleton
while spin bowler Bert Ironmonger
was recalled to the side.
Nash's inclusion raised eyebrows, as The Argus wrote "The inclusion of Nash will occasion most surprise", particularly as Nash was the only fast bowler chosen in the Australian team. However Nash soon silenced any critics with a dangerous opening spell, capturing three of the first four South African wickets to fall and 4 in the first innings for just 18 runs, followed by 1/4 in the second as South Africa were routed for 36 and 45. The match was the first to finish in under six hours' play.
Following the match, The Times commented favourably on Nash, reporting "Nash is a short, powerfully built man, … made the ball kick awkwardly, several balls getting up head-high, and in one spell before luncheon took three wickets for four runs. Nash has plenty of stamina for a fast bowler and is considered by some to be the man for whom the selectors are searching to fill the place of Gregory."
Nash's performance also drew the interest of VFL clubs, as he was "said to be a better footballer than he is a cricketer." Victorian Football League clubs Richmond
and Footscray sought to recruit Nash but the VFL considered Nash a Fitzroy
player due to his time at Fitzroy Cricket Club.
The 1932–1933 cricket season saw the Douglas Jardine
-led England
side tour Australia, with Nash expected to open the bowling. English newspaper the News Chronicle
stated that the emergence of Nash was "a grim prospect for England in its attempts to recover the Ashes." Despite this, he was left out of what became known as the Bodyline
series.
In the wake of England's tactics of sustained fast short pitched bowling at the body of the Australian batsman, Australian vice-captain Vic Richardson
urged that Nash be brought into the Test team to "give the Poms back some of their own medicine." Another Australian cricketer, Jack Fingleton, later wrote that the Australian selectors erred in not playing Nash, believing he was to be the best exponent in Australia of intimidatory fast bowling. However, the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket
, which had been protesting to the Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC) about the Bodyline tactics of Jardine, believed that the inclusion of Nash would only aggravate an already tense situation, and Australian captain Bill Woodfull
thought Bodyline bowling to be unsportsmanlike and refused to use the tactic.
Nash himself claimed that he could have ended Bodyline in two overs without needing to resort to a leg field, as he believed that the English batsman could not hook and a few overs of sustained, fast short pitched bowling would have caused England to abandon their Bodyline tactics.
As it was, Nash only played one first-class game during the 1932–1933 season—for an Australian XI side against MCC at the MCG. Opening the bowling, Nash took 3/39 in the first innings and 0/18 in the second, with reporters noting that he occasionally got a lot of bounce out of the wicket. By this point Nash had played 17 matches for Tasmania, scoring 857 runs at 29.55 and taking 51 wickets at 31.96. There was also talk, which proved unfounded, that Nash would be invited to join the touring team to Canada
that Arthur Mailey
was compiling.
clubs sought to recruit Laurie and Robert Junior. South Melbourne
, partly through its connection to Roy Cazaly and partly through its offer to Nash of an unprecedented £
3 per match, accommodation and a job in a sports store, eventually won the battle for the Nash brothers' signatures for the 1933 VFL season
. Such was the interest in Melbourne in where Nash would play, when South Melbourne committee member Joe Scanlan
travelled to Tasmania to sign Nash, he was smuggled aboard the steamer to avoid media attention.
Nash moved to Melbourne in late 1932 and began playing cricket for South Melbourne Cricket Club
while waiting for his transfer to South Melbourne Football Club to be processed.
Laurie starred in practice matches for South Melbourne but Robert Junior struggled and left the club prior to the start of the season to successfully play firstly for VFA club Coburg and then play and coach in country Victoria, Wearing guernsey number 25, Nash made his VFL debut for South Melbourne against Carlton Football Club
at Princes Park on 29 April 1933, aged 22 years and 362 days. A near record crowd of 37,000 attended the match and Nash immediately became one of the League's top players, dominating matches from centre half-back
. Due in large part to Nash's performance, South Melbourne finished the 1933 Home and Away season
in second.
Nash caused the South Melbourne coaching staff concern when he fractured two fingers in a match against Hawthorn
two weeks before the final series. Normally this type of injury would require a player to miss six weeks of football but Nash, who kicked six goals in the match, missed just one week, returned for South's Semi-Final win against Richmond and was considered Best on Ground in South Melbourne's 1933 premiership
win. In the Grand Final Nash played at centre-half-back, took thirteen marks and had twenty-nine kicks and dominated play.
Nash was adjudged the finest defender since World War I by The Sporting Globe and was runner-up in the Best and Fairest at South Melbourne.
A week after the Grand Final and still on a high from the premiership win, Nash opened the bowling for his district club South Melbourne
against Australian captain Bill Woodfull
's team, Carlton
. Mindful of the upcoming Test tour of England, Nash thought he could impress Woodfull by bowling him a series of short pitched deliveries, eventually hitting him over the heart (Woodfull had been hit just under the heart by Harold Larwood during the Bodyline series). Nash dismissed Woodfull caught and bowled later that over for 15 but did not realise that "there was no way in the world Woodfull would take this wild and slightly uncouth cricketer with him to England in the current political climate (or perhaps any other)" and was not chosen for the subsequent tour of England.
. He was chosen to play in the Bert Ironmonger/Don Blackie
benefit match, which was also a Test trial, but was forced to withdraw after contracting rheumatism
in his shoulder. Nash's replacement, Hans Ebeling
, bowled well enough to secure a place in the tour squad instead.
Following the 1933 Premiership success, hopes were high for the 1934 VFL season
, which was known as the Centenary Premiership year, in recognition of one hundred years since the European settlement of Victoria
. Nash continued to move between centre half-back and centre half-forward
, kicking 53 goals for the year (47 of which from 9 games) as well as playing a significant role in South Melbourne full-forward
Bob Pratt
reaching a record 150 goals (although later in life Pratt would joke that Nash only kicked to him once "but that was a mistake.")
In August 1934, Nash was chosen to play for Victoria in an interstate match against South Australia
at the MCG, replacing the injured Pratt. Initially selected at centre half-forward, Nash had kicked 2 goals by the start of the second quarter when he was moved to full-forward to replace the injured Bill Mohr
and proceeded to kick a further 16 goals to finish with 18 goals, a record for a Victorian player and for the MCG as Victoria defeated South Australia 30.19 (199) to 14.10 (94). Brownlow Medallist Ivor Warne-Smith
wrote of Nash's performance; "his was a great achievement. He showed superb marking, good ground play, and accurate kicking. Some of his shots from left-foot snaps were gems… His performance has never been equalled." He later claimed he would have kicked 27 goals that day but for the selfishness of the rovers who refused to kick to him. Following the match, Dr B. Crellin, who attended the birth of Nash, publicly apologised to the South Australian side, claiming part responsibility for the mayhem inflicted by Nash.
South Melbourne finished the home and away series in third position, defeated Collingwood by three points in the first Semi-Final and Geelong by 60 points in the Preliminary Final, with Nash in brilliant form in the drizzling rain, kicking four goals.
Going into the 1934 Grand Final
, South Melbourne were favourites to retain the premiership but while Nash kicked six goals and was adjudged one of the best players of the match, South Melbourne were defeated by Richmond by 39 points. Such was the surprise around South Melbourne's loss, there were post-match rumours of South players being offered and accepting bribes to play poorly and Bob Pratt and Peter Reville
angrily confronted team mates who underperformed.
Nash served in the South Melbourne area for two years before resigning, having made no arrests in that time.
Nash continued to cement his reputation as one of the top footballers in the country, being called "the most versatile player in Australia", as, in addition to playing at centre half-back and centre half-forward, he successfully played in the ruck
.
Named at centre half-back for Victoria in the game against Western Australia, Nash arrived in Perth
with such a severe cold he was unable to train in the lead up to match. Nash injured his knee and ankle in Victoria's win over Western Australia in Perth in early July and was unable to train for a week. While Nash did not miss any matches due to the injuries, they bothered him throughout the season and he was forced to miss South Melbourne Footballers' weekly dance at the Lake Oval Social Hall. Although carrying injuries, Nash continued to show his versatility, playing around the ground and led South Melbourne to the Grand Final
, their third in a row, only to be defeated by Collingwood.
At the end of the 1935 season, Nash was adjudged the Best Player in the VFL by the Sporting Globe, yet only came runner-up to Ron Hillis
in South Melbourne's Best and Fairest.
result in 1936, receiving ten votes and finishing equal sixteenth behind winner Denis Ryan
, while at South Melbourne, Nash was voted runner-up in the Best and Fairest and was runner-up in the Leading Goalkicker award. Nash however was considered by many judges as the best footballer in Australia, being adjudged "VFL Best Player" by the Sporting Globe, "VFL Footballer of the Year" by the Melbourne Herald and "VFL Best Player of the Year" by The Australian, while newspapers reported that crowds "gasped" at the remarkable things he was able achieve with the ball.
South Melbourne finished the year as Minor Premier but lost to Collingwood in the Second Semi-Final, although Nash, at centre-half-back, was listed as one of South's best players in the match. South then won the Preliminary Final against Melbourne, with the dominance of Nash, again at centre-half-back, over his opponent Jack Mueller
, himself one of the VFL's leading players, deciding the result of the final.
For the fourth season in a row, South Melbourne reached the Grand Final
, only to lose, for the third season in a row, to Collingwood for the second time in a row. Nash kicked one goal in the Grand Final and was adjudged one of South's best players but Collingwood's Jack Ross's
dogged tagging of Nash throughout the match was considered the decisive factor in Collingwood's win.
, becoming part of the first father and son team to captain a VFL/AFL side. It is thought that South Melbourne's newly appointed coach Roy Cazaly
influenced the selection of Nash as captain, as Cazaly, Nash's coach in Tasmania, believed Nash to be the best footballer ever. There was some controversy over Nash's selection as captain, as it had been expected that vice-captain Brighton Diggins
would be named captain. In response, Diggins quit South.
South Melbourne did not enjoy the same level of success it had in the past four seasons, dropping to ninth position as retirements of some its key players from the previous four seasons, as well as injuries meant Nash was forced to play a lone hand for much of the year. Nash won the club goal kicking award with 37 goals.
Nash spent five years out of the cricketing spotlight (although he dominated Melbourne district cricket
, the Victorian selectors refused to select him and he never played a Sheffield Shield match). In 1936–1937 he topped the Victorian Premier Cricket
bowling averages.
Nash was chosen for Victoria against the touring English cricket team and responded with figures of 2/21 and 2/16 and had the tourists ducking and weaving with "several head and rib-hunting deliveries an over". By playing for Victoria in this match, Nash became the first person to represent two different states in cricket and Australian rules football. He remains one of only three players to do so (the others being Keith Miller and Neil Hawke
).
In response to his bowling performance, Nash was picked for the deciding Fifth Test of the 1936–1937 Ashes series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with the sides locked at 2–2 in the series. His selection invoked complaints from the touring English side, where it was reported that a "feeling bordering on panic" had arisen at the thought of facing Nash during the Test. England captain Gubby Allen
pressed for Nash's banishment from the Australian team, organising a private lunch with Bradman, then Australian captain. Bradman refused to omit Nash, believing "his presence in the team would be a psychological threat to England whether he bowled bouncers or underarm grubbers". Allen then approached the Australian Board of Control
. It has been suggested that the Board of Control wanted to accede to Allen's demand and veto Nash's selection but were forced to relent when the selectors threatened to resign if Nash was not included. Finally, Allen informed the umpires that if Nash was to bowl one ball aimed at the body, he would immediately bring his batsmen off the ground.
Nash claimed 4/70 and 1/34 and scored a sedate 17 in seventy-five minutes (disappointing the crowd which "was expecting fireworks from him") as Australia clinched the series. Nash also took a number of catches, including Wally Hammond
off Bill O'Reilly and a spectacular catch to dismiss Ken Farnes
, the last England batsman, pocketing the ball and a stump as souvenirs. When later asked about his inclusion, Nash replied "They knew where to come when they stood 2-all in the rubber."
The media was full of praise for Nash's performance in the Test, claiming that Nash was a much more reliable fast bowler than his "erratic" opening partner Ernie McCormick
. Nash was praised for his stamina, his ability to keep his footing and his direction during long bowling stints and his vicious yorker, which he used to dismiss Leslie Ames in the first innings and Joe Hardstaff junior
in the second.
Bradman later wrote that Nash's bowling was scrupulously fair and that any bouncers were few and adhered to the spirit of cricket.
at the Adelaide Oval
in what would have been his first Sheffield Shield match. However, Nash was forced to withdraw and fly to Tasmania following his wife Irene's sudden collapse in Hobart
with peritonitis
.
At the start of the 1937–1938 cricket season, it was expected that Nash would be chosen for the 1938 Ashes Tour
, with one journalist stating that if he was not selected, the team "would not be truly representative of our nation's real cricketing strength." Nash continued to terrorise batsmen in district cricket, including the rare occurrence of taking all 10 wickets in an innings (for 35 runs) for South Melbourne against Prahran in 1938, but was not selected for Victoria throughout the season. Nash's non-selection for Victoria led some Victorian Cricket Association delegates to publicly question why "the best fast bowler in Australia, and probably the world, is not chosen to represent Victoria" and demand that the Victorian selectors explain their non-selection of Nash.
Nash's first-class career ended at the age of 26. His 10 wickets at 12.60 places him fourth on the list of averages for bowlers to have taken 10 or more Test wickets (and the best by an Australian). His 22 first-class matches reaped 69 wickets at 28.33 and 953 runs at 28.02.
A young Keith Miller
also played for the South Melbourne Cricket Club and gained his first wicket in district cricket from a catch by Nash. Miller later declared that the non-selection of Nash as a regular Test player was "the greatest waste of talent in Australian cricket history", adding that Australian captain Don Bradman wanted Nash in the side to tour England in 1938 but that Nash "suffered injustices at the hands of high-level cricket administration", who refused to consider his selection.
The reasons given for the administrators' disinclination towards Nash include his reputation for blunt speech, his abrasive personality, which included sledging
and even the fact that he wore cut off sleeves, which was considered a serious faux pas in the 1930s. Nash himself believed it was due to his working-class background, saying "I didn't wear the old school tie. I was a working man's son. I didn't fit in".
in the rival Victorian Football Association (VFA) without a clearance. Although one of the highest paid players in the VFL, Nash accepted an offer of £8/week to captain/coach Camberwell Football Club, £3/week to captain/coach Camberwell Cricket Club and a job as a Camberwell Council
official.
South Melbourne and the VFL objected to the transfer and South Melbourne sent out a public appeal for a job for Nash that would match that offered by Camberwell but nothing suitable was forthcoming. There were also threats of legal action against Nash and Camberwell, which did not eventuate, although the VFL banned Nash from playing in their competition for three years.
Nash was immediately appointed captain of Camberwell Football Club and quickly became one of the most popular figures in the VFA, drawing large crowds to even practice matches. Playing mainly at centre-half-back, Nash was runner-up in the 1938 Camberwell Best and Fairest and won the 1939 Best and Fairest. Nash spent four seasons at Camberwell, where he played 74 games and kicked 418 goals, including 141 in 1941. At the start of the 1940 season Nash was still considered amongst the best footballers in the country and, with the transfer of former South Melbourne team mate Bob Pratt and Collingwood full-forward Ron Todd
to rival VFA sides Coburg and Williamstown
respectively, there was talk that the VFA, traditionally the lesser of the two leagues, would now match the VFL for crowds.
Nash was officially appointed Captain/Coach of Camberwell Cricket Club on 19 September 1938 and his debut for the club in the summer of 1938–1939 meant that he was the first person to be paid for playing grade cricket in Australia.
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Nash did not rush to enlist in the Australian armed forces on the outbreak of war in 1939. While there was no public statement from Nash, it is thought that with a family to support and an Irish Catholic anti-pathy to the British, Nash did not feel an urgency to fight. However, following the commencement of the war against Japan
, Nash enlisted on 2 February 1942.
Realising the potential public relations coup in having a star sportsman enlist, officers recommended that Nash be seconded to the Army School of Physical Training (where Don Bradman had been given a commission), which offered greater pay and rank and ensured that Nash would not be posted overseas, away from family. Additionally, a medical examination detected osteoarthritis
in both his knees, derived from the number of injuries he sustained throughout his footballing career. Nash refused, stating that he did not wish to be treated differently to ordinary recruits, and enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force
, gaining the rank of Trooper
.
Nash was posted to the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, which had seen action in the Syria-Lebanon
and the Netherlands East Indies campaigns. The 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion was sent to the South West Pacific theatre
, supporting the 7th Division in the New Guinea campaign
and fought in the Finisterre Range campaign
in the advance to Lae
.
Throughout his tour of duty Nash had been wary of preferential treatment towards him due to his fame and opposed any attempts to promote him, which he believed he did not deserve. However, a jeep crash resulted in further injury to Nash's knees and ultimately led to a medical discharge from the Army on 18 February 1944. Following his return to Australia, Nash sold War Bonds and appeared at war-related charity functions, including one where he raised an additional £100 by singing to the large crowd.
Although Nash would claim that he was never prouder than when he was a soldier, always wore his Returned Services League (RSL) badge and eagerly attended reunions of the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, he never marched on Anzac Day
or applied for the campaign medals for which he was eligible.
Although out of shape and with arthritic knees, Nash announced that he was making a football comeback in 1945
and sought to return to South Melbourne, rather than Camberwell, to which he was still contracted. Camberwell declined Nash's transfer application and both clubs stated that they would be naming Nash in their respective sides for Round One.
A further problem arose when it was discovered that during the war Nash had played two games for his old boy scout troop, the 6th Melbourne Scouts, while on leave. In early 1945, VFL administrators passed a rule stating that any player who had transferred from the League to another competition must remain out of football for five years before being allowed to re-register with the VFL.
After an appeal by South Melbourne, a special meeting of the VFL was held to amend the rules so ex-servicemen would not be penalised for playing in minor matches. The amendment was made the day before the commencement of the 1945 season, allowing Nash to take his place for South Melbourne in their Round One match against St Kilda.
Nash was slower and more portly than he was in the 1930s, short of match practice and forced to spend most Sundays in hospital having fluid drained from his injured knees swollen from the exertions of the day before, forcing South Melbourne coach Bull Adams
to nurse Nash through the season. Additionally, in the Round Five match against Footscray, he tore the webbing between his fingers which later became infected, causing him to miss the Round Six match against North Melbourne
and although Nash wore a special leather glove to protect his hand, the injury would trouble him for the rest of the season.
Despite these setbacks, Nash could still be a match winner and many opposition players saw him as the key player for South Melbourne. Nash's best return for the year was seven goals against St Kilda in Round 12 and he twice kicked six goals in a match; against Geelong in Round 15 and Fitzroy in Round 18. When an opposition player did well against Nash, it was something to savour; years later leading Richmond
player Don "Mopsy" Fraser
wrote "Trouncing Nash does a lot for your confidence, even an ageing Nash."
against underdogs Carlton, who made the finals on percentage and had to play a number of elimination matches to reach the Grand Final. Named at full-forward, at 35 years and 150 days, Nash was the oldest player in the Grand Final. Standing Nash was Carlton full-back Vin Brown
, who was 14 years younger and quicker and the only Carlton player considered strong enough to match Nash in a one-on-one contest.
Carlton unnerved South Melbourne with a tough, physical game, with several South players being knocked unconscious. As a result Nash was being distracted from his game and was not playing as well as usual. Early in the final quarter of the spiteful match, which Carlton was leading, Nash led out to take a mark when he saw Carlton's captain Bob Chitty
running towards him. Nash turned and king-hit Chitty with what he later described as the sweetest punch he had ever thrown, knocking Chitty out, breaking his jaw and leaving a large wound over his left eye which required several stitches. As the umpire was unsighted, Nash went unreported over this incident. Rumours circulated about the clash, as it saw Chitty, a renowned hard man, knocked out for the only time in his career. One rumour purported that Nash had used a martial arts move he had been taught in the army to knock Chitty out, while another was aired by Carlton coach Percy Bentley
who publicly claimed that a South Melbourne player had hidden a piece of metal in the leather guard the player wore to protect his injured hand which exacerbated Chitty's injury. Bentley did not name a specific player but as Nash was the only player in the match wearing a leather guard, it was obvious who Bentley was referring to.
After Carlton's win over South, Nash's opponent Brown was a consensus pick for best player on ground. Nash was described as a "sad figure… age and injury had reduced him to almost a caricature, a lion in winter simply going through the motions. His body was no longer capable of performing the feats that a decade earlier had seen him feted as the finest footballer to ever play the game." All up, Nash played 17 games for South in 1945, kicking 56 goals, leaving him with 99 VFL matches and 246 goals. Nash also played three matches for Victoria, kicking 19 goals.
for a salary of £12 per week, four times the wage he would have received playing for South Melbourne. The high wage also meant that Nash was not required to find additional employment to cover his family's expenses, and in so doing, became one of the first fully professional Australian rules football players.
Nash not only led Wangaratta to a premiership but, as a favour to a friend, also coached another country side, Greta
in 1946, leading them to a premiership in the Ovens and King Football League, becoming one of the few people to have coached two different teams to a premiership in the same season. Nash is still remembered in Greta for placing a football in a cowpat and placekicking it over a tall gum tree.
In 1947, Nash was appointed captain-coach of Casterton
, in western Victoria. He took Casterton to a grand final that season, losing by a point. The grand final would be Nash's final official game as a player, although he did play in charity matches for some years.
. Following his appointment, Nash confidently predicted that he would coach South Melbourne to a premiership that year and at the halfway point of the season South were tipped to play in the finals but injuries to key players led to five consecutive losses and at the end of the season South Melbourne had won nine games and lost nine games to finish eighth in the twelve team competition.
There was some criticism of Nash as a coach as he apparently could not understand how players were unable to do things on the football field that came to him naturally. Nash had signed a two year contract, yet the South Melbourne committee re-advertised the position of coach following the end of the 1953 season and while Nash applied, he was not reappointed. Fellow South Melbourne champion Bob Skilton
claimed that had Nash been given time, he "would have become one of the all-time great coaches".
Following his retirement from coaching, Nash became involved in the sporting media. He wrote a column for the Sporting Globe newspaper, spoke at sportsmans' nights and made regular television appearances, including on World of Sport
, to comment on Australian rules football and point out that there had not been a player of his ability in the VFL since his retirement.
In his newspaper column, Nash did not shy away from controversy, claiming on one occasion that Sir Donald Bradman had openly "roasted" a number of leading Australian cricketers for their performance during a Test. The claim sparked an angry response from Bradman, who claimed "everything in the article as attributed to me is completely without foundation in every particular."
In addition to his positions in the media, Nash was also a publican, which proved so financially successfully he was able to pay cash for a house in the upmarket Melbourne suburb of South Yarra
. An altercation with a drunken patron resulted in a broken left hip and forced Nash to sell his hotel, the Prince Alfred in Port Melbourne
and gain employment as a clerk in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, a position he held until his mandatory retirement at 65.
Along with fellow former Test cricketer Lindsay Hassett
, Nash voluntarily served on the executive committee of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria and worked closely with the aboriginal community of Melbourne, partly in recognition of his old friend Doug Nicholls, a former VFL footballer and leading figure in the Indigenous community. He also turned his interest to fishing, stating that he felt "edgy" if he did not go fishing a couple of times a week.
Nash strongly opposed the relocation of South Melbourne Football Club to Sydney (renamed the Sydney Swans) in 1981, considering it a repudiation of the proud South Melbourne he had helped create. Nash stated that he had given fifty years to South Melbourne but due to the relocation they had now lost him forever and refused to attend Swans matches for many years, relenting only shortly before his death to attend a match between Sydney and Footscray.
Nash was forced to have a pin and plate inserted in his broken left hip and as a result walked with a profound limp. He also began to drink and eat more and stopped his exercise routine, leading him to become bloated, "like an old, red balloon that had been slightly let down".
Nash's father Bob Senior collapsed and died in 1958 while at the MCG watching Collingwood win the 1958 VFL Grand Final
. Laurie Nash later said that it would have been the perfect way for his father to die. Nash's brother Bob Junior died of emphysema
in the early 1970s, while in 1975 Irene Nash, who had been in poor health for some time, died, leaving Nash heartbroken. Every day for five years he visited the cemetery where her remains were scattered.
In 1980 Nash met twice widowed Doreen Hutchison and eventually moved in with her. While they never married, Doreen answered to the name "Mrs Nash". When Doreen died suddenly from a heart attack in 1985, Nash's health quickly deteriorated and he suffered a stroke in early 1986. Visitors to Nash's bedside remarked that Nash could not believe his own mortality.
Following a succession of strokes, Nash died in the Repatriation Hospital in Heidelberg, Victoria
on 24 July 1986, aged 76. Survived by his daughter Noelene and grandsons Anthony and Simon, a service for Nash was held at a Catholic church in Melbourne and his cremated remains were scattered at Fawkner Memorial Park, near that of his wife Irene.
Yet, whilst Nash tended to sound arrogant in public, he was very modest about his success in private; in fact, his daughter Noelene was not aware of her father's sporting success until aged 12 when a friend's father told her.
Legendary Richmond Football Club
player and coach Jack Dyer
asserted that Nash was "Inch for inch, pound for pound, the greatest player in the history of Australian Rules", adding "He was the only man I knew who could bite off more than he could chew and chew it."
In the view of champion Collingwood full-forward Gordon Coventry
, whose record of 1299 VFL career goals between 1920 and 1937 would not be surpassed for 62 years, if Nash had played at full-forward for his entire career, he would have kicked more goals than anyone, Coventry included. In 1936 Coventry stated that Nash was the best player he had seen; "No player is more versatile, for he can play anywhere. He is fast, has great control of the ball, kicks with either foot and has that little bit of "devil" so essential in the makeup of a champion of to-day."
Fellow footballer Vic Richardson
wrote in 1968 that Nash "was faster than any player I have seen in getting the ball moving to players running on. Add his high marking ability and speed to his quick thinking and you had a player who practically originated today's style of play and one who would be unbeatable at it."
In retirement, Nash was asked why he never won a Brownlow Medal
(the award for the Best and Fairest player in the VFL). He replied, "I was never the best and fairest but I reckon I might have been the worst and dirtiest. I played it hard and tough."
After making a duck
in the first innings of the match between Tasmania and the touring Australian side in March 1930, members of the Australian side advised Nash to change his stance, stating that it was too unorthodox to be successful. Nash ignored this advice and promptly scored 93 in the second innings of the match.
Nash's bowling action has been described as letting "the ball go with a furious arm action, as if a fortune depended on every ball", making "the ball fizz as he charged through the crease at a speed that always appeared likely to topple him over." Another witness added "there was little beauty in his bowling. He sprinted to the wicket faster than most bowlers but had an almost round-arm flipping delivery" which made him the most dangerous bowler in Australia on lively pitches. In 1990, famed Australian historian Manning Clark
recalled Nash's bowling when he wrote of the period in the 1930s when he was an opening batsman for the University of Melbourne
in Victorian district cricket and had to draw on his mother's strength to help him "face Laurie Nash at the South Melbourne ground without flinching."
Nash was also complimented on his control, stamina and "an ever present confidence in his ability", which, combined with his speed, made him a formidable bowler. Additionally, Nash was also praised for his fielding in almost any position, with one scribe referring to his "amazingly athletic ability".
, tennis
and quoits
, including the Australian cricket team's 1932 deck quoits championship at the Oriental Hotel in Melbourne, defeating Clarrie Grimmett
in the final. Nash's natural skills in any sport he tried led former first-class cricketer Johnnie Moyes
to call Nash "one of the finest all-round athletes of the century".
Nash was made a life member of South Melbourne Football Club in 1960 and following his death, the Sydney Swans wore black armbands in their match against Carlton, named their Best and Fairest Award the "Laurie Nash Medal", in 2003 named him at centre-half-forward in their "Team of the Century" and in 2009 named him as an inaugural member of their Hall of Fame. The central place Nash held at the Swans was illustrated in 2005, when following Sydney's grand final win
, a cartoon appeared in the Melbourne Herald Sun, featuring Swans players surrounding Nash, who was wearing his South Melbourne guernsey and was drinking from the premiership cup.
In 1987 Nash was made a foundation member of the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame and named at centre-half-back in the Tasmanian Australian rules "Team of the Century". When he was selected for the Australian Football Hall of Fame
in 1996, the summary commented "One of the most gifted players ever, his career was half as long as many but it shone twice as brightly as most. Considered by many judges (himself included) the best player in the land…".
Test batsman Merv Harvey
once claimed that his greatest achievement was scoring runs off Nash's bowling, which he classed as the fastest he had ever faced, in a club match.
Author Ian Shaw called Nash "perhaps the greatest all-round sportsman Australia
has ever produced", while some fans old enough to remember Nash at his peak list him as the greatest player they ever saw and a football journalist who failed to include Nash in a "Best Ever" list was the target of a letter writing campaign from elderly fans.
Additionally, by way of a folk memorial, he is recalled in the Australian vernacular term "Laurie Nash", rhyming slang for "cash" and is mentioned in the 1993 novel Going Away by award winning journalist Martin Flanagan.
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
er and Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
er. An inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame
Australian Football Hall of Fame
The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coaches and administrators. It was initially established...
, Nash was a member of South Melbourne
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
's 1933 premiership team
1933 VFL Grand Final
The 1933 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Richmond Football Club and South Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 1933. It was the 37th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...
, captained South Melbourne in 1937 and was the team's leading goal kicker in 1937 and 1945. In cricket, Nash was a fast bowler and hard hitting lower order batsman who played two Test matches for Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
, taking 10 wickets at 12.80 runs per wicket, and scoring 30 runs at a batting average of 15.
The son of a leading Australian rules footballer of the early twentieth century who had also played cricket against the touring Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
in 1921, Nash was a star sportsman as a boy. Following the family's relocation from Victoria to Tasmania, he began to make a name for himself as both a footballer and a cricketer, and became both one of the earliest professional club cricketers in Australia and one of the first fully professional Australian rules footballers. Nash made his Test cricket debut in 1932, against South Africa and his Victorian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
(VFL) debut in 1933.
While Nash had great success in football, he faced opposition from the cricket establishment for his supposedly poor attitude towards authority. This led fellow cricketer Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
to write that his non-selection as a regular Test player was "the greatest waste of talent in Australian cricket history".
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Nash rejected offers of a home posting and instead served as a trooper in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, stating that he wished to be treated no differently from any other soldier. Following the end of the war, Nash returned to South Melbourne and won the team goal kicking award, although his age and injuries inhibited any return of his previous successes. Nash retired from VFL football at the end of the 1945 season to play and coach in the country before returning to coach South Melbourne in 1953. After retiring, Nash wrote columns for newspapers, was a panellist on football television shows and was a publican before his death in Melbourne, aged 76.
Early life
Fitzroy, Victoria
Fitzroy is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra. Its borders are Alexandra Parade , Victoria Parade , Smith Street and Nicholson Street. Fitzroy is Melbourne's...
on 2 May 1910, the youngest of three children of Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
s Robert
Robert Nash (Australian rules footballer)
Robert Henry "Bob" Nash was a former leading Australian rules footballer who captained Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League and captain coached Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football Association...
and Mary Nash. He had a brother, Robert Junior, and one sister, Mary, known as Maizie.
Nash belonged to a sporting family; his grandfather Michael Nash and great-uncle Thomas Nash were leading players for Carlton Football Club
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
in the 1880s, his father Robert captained Collingwood Football Club
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
and coached Footscray Football Club, and played cricket, opening the bowling for Hamilton
Hamilton, Victoria
Hamilton is a city in western Victoria, Australia. It is located at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway...
in a match against the 1920–1921 touring English side, while Robert Junior also became a leading footballer in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
and country Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. Nash's mother was an orphan who was probably adopted several times, allowing historians no opportunity to determine any sporting links on her side of the family. Nash's biographer also claims that former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
Sir Walter Nash
Walter Nash
Sir Walter Nash, GCMG, CH served as the 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960, and was also highly influential in his role as Minister of Finance...
and pianist Eileen Joyce
Eileen Joyce
Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG was an Australian pianist whose career spanned more than 30 years. She lived in England in her adult years....
were related to the family.
Nash's father, who had initially worked as a gas stoker, joined the police force in 1913 and served in a number of postings, including Hamilton in western Victoria, taking his family with him. In Hamilton, Nash attended Loreto Convent and began his interest in sport, practising kicking a football made of newspapers and tied together with string.
When Nash Senior was transferred back to Melbourne in 1922, the Nash brothers attended St Ignatius School in the Melbourne working-class suburb of Richmond
Richmond, Victoria
Richmond is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...
, where Nash became best friends with fellow student Tommy Lahiff
Tommy Lahiff
Thomas 'Tommy' Lahiff was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon, South Melbourne and Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League before becoming a successful coach and radio commentator....
, who would also become a leading Australian rules footballer.
Although short and stocky, Nash and his brother Robert Junior developed into star junior sportsmen, excelling at football and cricket, although Nash Senior preferred Laurie to become a cricketer, considering it a better and longer career option and forbid his sons from playing senior football until age 20.
Nash's performance in junior cricket led Victorian district cricket club Fitzroy to sign him for the 1927/28 season. Nash made his first grade debut for Fitzroy as a seventeen year-old and spent two and a half seasons at Fitzroy, earning plaudits for his performances and, until he broke his wrist in a fielding mishap, there were suggestions that he was close to Victorian
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
selection.
Nash Senior was a member of a group of 600 police who went on strike in 1923 for better wages but was dismissed from the force and required to find another livelihood. Nash Senior went into the hotel business, firstly in Melbourne before eventually moving his family to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
in 1929 to run the hotel at Parattah
Parattah, Tasmania
Parattah is a small township in Tasmania, located about 6 kilometres southeast of the town of Oatlands. At the 2006 census, Parattah had a population of 105....
.
Tasmania
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
sport store and made his Tasmanian district cricket debut for the Tamar Cricket Club on 7 December 1929, taking 7 wickets for 29 (7/29) and 1/16. After one more match for Tamar, in which he took 5/41, Nash was chosen in the Northern Tasmania side in the annual match against Southern Tasmania, where he took match figures of 7/40 and top scored in both innings.
These performances led Nash to make his first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut for Tasmania
Tasmanian Tigers
The Tasmanian cricket team, nicknamed the Tigers, represents the Australian state of Tasmania in cricket tournaments. They compete annually in the Australian domestic senior men's cricket season, which currently consists of the first-class Sheffield Shield, the limited overs Ford Ranger Cup, and...
against Victoria in Launceston on 31 December 1929, taking 2/97, with future Test player Leo O'Brien
Leo O'Brien
For the former US congressman from New York, see Leo W. O'BrienFor the former Wisconsin politician, see Leo P. O'BrienLeo Patrick Joseph O'Brien was an Australian cricketer who played in 5 Tests from 1932 to 1936.He attended both Xavier College and St Patrick's College, Ballarat....
his maiden first-class wicket, and scoring 1 and 48 (Tasmania's top score in their second innings).
Four months later, he made his senior football debut for the Roy Cazaly
Roy Cazaly
Roy Cazaly was an Australian rules football player famous for his high marks and ruck work, which gave rise to the phrase "Up There Cazaly".-Early life/career:...
coached City
South Launceston Football Club
The South Launceston Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Tasmanian Football League. They were formed through a merger between City-South and East Launceston in 1986, former Northern Tasmanian Football Association clubs...
side in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA), immediately standing out on account of his skills, blond hair and confidence in his abilities. Nash made the Tasmanian side for the national carnival
1930 Adelaide Carnival
The 1930 Adelaide Carnival was the seventh edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition....
in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
where he won the medal for the most outstanding Tasmanian player of the carnival. Nash played in defence for City while Robert Junior played in the forward line and both were considered sensational.
Between 1930 and 1932 Nash played 45 games for City (including premierships in 1930 and 1932), kicking 14 goals, and winning the Tasman Shields Trophy, awarded to the Best and Fairest player in the NTFA, in 1931 and 1932. Additionally, Nash played 10 games for Northern Tasmania (12 goals) and 5 games for Tasmania at the national carnival.
Nash played for Tasmania against the touring West Indian cricket team
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
in December 1930. Batting at number three, Nash made 41 and 0 and took 2/87, including bowling Learie Constantine
Learie Constantine
Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine MBE was a West Indian cricketer who played 18 Test matches before the Second World War. He took West Indies' first wicket in Test cricket and was the team's leading all-rounder and opening bowler for the entirety of his career...
, who had scored 100 in 65 minutes. Journalists noted that during Constantine's innings, Nash was the only Tasmanian bowler to watch the West Indian closely and take note of his strengths and weaknesses, which led to his eventual success against the batsman.
In September 1932 Nash married Irene Roles in Launceston, with City and Tasmania team mate Ted Pickett
Ted Pickett
Edward Arthur "Ted" Pickett, OAM was a leading Australian sportsman of the twentieth century, playing representative cricket, Australian rules football, tennis, badminton, golf, billiards, snooker and athletics...
acting as best man. Due to the strict sectarianism of the 1930s, there was some controversy as Irene was a Protestant from one of Launceston's establishment families, and the wedding was held in a Protestant church. For years afterwards, Nash was subjected to a campaign by Catholic clergy to hold a Catholic wedding ceremony to legitimise his marriage but refused.
Laurie and Irene had one child, Noelene, in 1939. Wallish states that it was thought that Laurie sought to have additional children but Irene was opposed.
Called for throwing
On 26 January 1931 Nash was called for throwingThrowing (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, throwing, commonly referred to as chucking, is an illegal bowling action which occurs when a bowler straightens their arm when delivering the ball. The Laws of Cricket specify that a bowler's arm must be fully extended and rotated about the shoulder to impart velocity to...
in a match for Tasmania against Victoria at Launceston. He later claimed that the throw was deliberate and came out of frustration with his fielders. The call for throwing was early in the innings but Nash was able to recover from the incident to take 5/76 out of Victoria's total of 524. Earlier in the same match Nash opened the batting and made 110, his highest first-class score. It has been speculated by cricket historian Bernard Whimpress
Bernard Whimpress
Dr. Bernard Whimpress is an Australian historian, most active in the area of sports history. A former sports magazine journalist and photographer, he has written, co-written and edited 20 books, mainly on cricket....
that Nash's decision to throw the ball may have been regarded by selectors as "part of a parcel of anti-social behaviours which told against regular selection" for either Australia or Victoria.
Test debut
Eric Dalton
Eric Londesbrough Dalton was a South African cricketer who played in 15 Tests from 1929 to 1939....
's jaw with a vicious bouncer
Bouncer (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a bouncer is a type of delivery, usually bowled by a fast bowler. It is pitched short so that it bounces on the pitch well short of the batsman and rears up to chest or head height as it reaches the batsman.Bouncers are used tactically to drive the batsman back on to his...
on the hat-trick ball. South African captain Jock Cameron
Jock Cameron
Jock Cameron was a South African cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s...
praised Nash for his performance as his bowling in the match was thought to be as quick and dangerous as any bowler in the world.
Following the Hobart match Nash was included in the Australian side
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
to make his Test debut, aged 21 years and 286 days, against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
beginning 12 February 1932. Nash was the first Tasmanian based player chosen to play for Australia since Charles Eady
Charles Eady
Charles John Eady was a cricketer who played for Tasmanian clubs and representative sides in the era before Tasmania was accepted into the Sheffield Shield and other competitions...
in 1902 and would be the last until Roger Woolley
Roger Woolley
Roger Douglas Woolley is a former Australian cricketer who played in 2 Tests and 4 ODIs from 1983 to 1984. He was a wicket-keeper, and was the third Tasmanian born Test cricketer...
debuted in 1983. Also making his Test debut for Australia was batsman Jack Fingleton
Jack Fingleton
John "Jack" Henry Webb Fingleton OBE was an Australian cricketer who was trained as a journalist and became a political and cricket commentator after the end of his playing career...
while spin bowler Bert Ironmonger
Bert Ironmonger
Herbert Ironmonger was a Victorian and Australian cricketer....
was recalled to the side.
Nash's inclusion raised eyebrows, as The Argus wrote "The inclusion of Nash will occasion most surprise", particularly as Nash was the only fast bowler chosen in the Australian team. However Nash soon silenced any critics with a dangerous opening spell, capturing three of the first four South African wickets to fall and 4 in the first innings for just 18 runs, followed by 1/4 in the second as South Africa were routed for 36 and 45. The match was the first to finish in under six hours' play.
Following the match, The Times commented favourably on Nash, reporting "Nash is a short, powerfully built man, … made the ball kick awkwardly, several balls getting up head-high, and in one spell before luncheon took three wickets for four runs. Nash has plenty of stamina for a fast bowler and is considered by some to be the man for whom the selectors are searching to fill the place of Gregory."
Nash's performance also drew the interest of VFL clubs, as he was "said to be a better footballer than he is a cricketer." Victorian Football League clubs Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
and Footscray sought to recruit Nash but the VFL considered Nash a Fitzroy
Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...
player due to his time at Fitzroy Cricket Club.
Bodyline
Douglas Jardine
Douglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34.When describing cricket seasons, the convention used is that a single year represents an English cricket season, while two years represent a southern hemisphere cricket season because it...
-led England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
side tour Australia, with Nash expected to open the bowling. English newspaper the News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
stated that the emergence of Nash was "a grim prospect for England in its attempts to recover the Ashes." Despite this, he was left out of what became known as the Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
series.
In the wake of England's tactics of sustained fast short pitched bowling at the body of the Australian batsman, Australian vice-captain Vic Richardson
Vic Richardson
Victor York Richardson OBE was a leading Australian sportsman of the 1920s and 1930s, captaining the Australian cricket team and the South Australian Australian rules football team, representing Australia in baseball and South Australia in golf, winning the South Australian state tennis title and...
urged that Nash be brought into the Test team to "give the Poms back some of their own medicine." Another Australian cricketer, Jack Fingleton, later wrote that the Australian selectors erred in not playing Nash, believing he was to be the best exponent in Australia of intimidatory fast bowling. However, the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
, which had been protesting to the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
(MCC) about the Bodyline tactics of Jardine, believed that the inclusion of Nash would only aggravate an already tense situation, and Australian captain Bill Woodfull
Bill Woodfull
William Maldon "Bill" Woodfull OBE was an Australian cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s. He captained both Victoria and Australia, and was best known for his dignified and moral conduct during the tumultuous bodyline series in 1932–33 that almost saw the end of Anglo-Australian cricketing ties...
thought Bodyline bowling to be unsportsmanlike and refused to use the tactic.
Nash himself claimed that he could have ended Bodyline in two overs without needing to resort to a leg field, as he believed that the English batsman could not hook and a few overs of sustained, fast short pitched bowling would have caused England to abandon their Bodyline tactics.
As it was, Nash only played one first-class game during the 1932–1933 season—for an Australian XI side against MCC at the MCG. Opening the bowling, Nash took 3/39 in the first innings and 0/18 in the second, with reporters noting that he occasionally got a lot of bounce out of the wicket. By this point Nash had played 17 matches for Tasmania, scoring 857 runs at 29.55 and taking 51 wickets at 31.96. There was also talk, which proved unfounded, that Nash would be invited to join the touring team to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
that Arthur Mailey
Arthur Mailey
Arthur Alfred Mailey was an Australian cricketer who played in 21 Test matches between 1920 and 1926....
was compiling.
1933
Nash's football career continued to soar as several Victorian Football LeagueAustralian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
clubs sought to recruit Laurie and Robert Junior. South Melbourne
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
, partly through its connection to Roy Cazaly and partly through its offer to Nash of an unprecedented £
Australian pound
The pound was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 13 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. It was subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence.- Earlier Australian currencies :...
3 per match, accommodation and a job in a sports store, eventually won the battle for the Nash brothers' signatures for the 1933 VFL season
1933 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1933.-Premiership season:In 1933, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man...
. Such was the interest in Melbourne in where Nash would play, when South Melbourne committee member Joe Scanlan
Joe Scanlan
Joe Scanlan was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the VFL during the 1920s....
travelled to Tasmania to sign Nash, he was smuggled aboard the steamer to avoid media attention.
Nash moved to Melbourne in late 1932 and began playing cricket for South Melbourne Cricket Club
Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club
The Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club is a cricket club located in the outer south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne East, which plays in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. Founded in 1862 as South Melbourne, it has produced nine Australian Test captains, more than any other cricket...
while waiting for his transfer to South Melbourne Football Club to be processed.
Laurie starred in practice matches for South Melbourne but Robert Junior struggled and left the club prior to the start of the season to successfully play firstly for VFA club Coburg and then play and coach in country Victoria, Wearing guernsey number 25, Nash made his VFL debut for South Melbourne against Carlton Football Club
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
at Princes Park on 29 April 1933, aged 22 years and 362 days. A near record crowd of 37,000 attended the match and Nash immediately became one of the League's top players, dominating matches from centre half-back
Centre half-back
In Australian rules football, the centre half-back refers to a position in the half-back line of a football field.Centre half back is considered a key position in defence. Examples of centre half-backs include Glen Jakovich, Darren Mead, Tom Harley and Chris Tarrant....
. Due in large part to Nash's performance, South Melbourne finished the 1933 Home and Away season
1933 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1933.-Premiership season:In 1933, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man...
in second.
Nash caused the South Melbourne coaching staff concern when he fractured two fingers in a match against Hawthorn
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...
two weeks before the final series. Normally this type of injury would require a player to miss six weeks of football but Nash, who kicked six goals in the match, missed just one week, returned for South's Semi-Final win against Richmond and was considered Best on Ground in South Melbourne's 1933 premiership
1933 VFL Grand Final
The 1933 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Richmond Football Club and South Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 1933. It was the 37th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...
win. In the Grand Final Nash played at centre-half-back, took thirteen marks and had twenty-nine kicks and dominated play.
Nash was adjudged the finest defender since World War I by The Sporting Globe and was runner-up in the Best and Fairest at South Melbourne.
A week after the Grand Final and still on a high from the premiership win, Nash opened the bowling for his district club South Melbourne
Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club
The Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club is a cricket club located in the outer south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne East, which plays in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. Founded in 1862 as South Melbourne, it has produced nine Australian Test captains, more than any other cricket...
against Australian captain Bill Woodfull
Bill Woodfull
William Maldon "Bill" Woodfull OBE was an Australian cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s. He captained both Victoria and Australia, and was best known for his dignified and moral conduct during the tumultuous bodyline series in 1932–33 that almost saw the end of Anglo-Australian cricketing ties...
's team, Carlton
Carlton Cricket Club
Carlton Cricket Club is an Australian cricket team that competes in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. The club was formed in 1864 and plays its home matches at Princes Park in North Carlton. Known as the Blues, Carlton has won eight First XI premierships, most recently in the...
. Mindful of the upcoming Test tour of England, Nash thought he could impress Woodfull by bowling him a series of short pitched deliveries, eventually hitting him over the heart (Woodfull had been hit just under the heart by Harold Larwood during the Bodyline series). Nash dismissed Woodfull caught and bowled later that over for 15 but did not realise that "there was no way in the world Woodfull would take this wild and slightly uncouth cricketer with him to England in the current political climate (or perhaps any other)" and was not chosen for the subsequent tour of England.
1934
Nash continued to play district cricket and was considered a strong possibility for the 1934 tour of EnglandAustralian cricket team in England in 1934
Australia won the 1934 Ashes series against England, winning two of the matches and losing one, with the other two tests drawn. The Australian tourists were captained by Bill Woodfull, while the home side were led by Bob Wyatt, with Cyril Walters deputising for Wyatt in the first Test.In the second...
. He was chosen to play in the Bert Ironmonger/Don Blackie
Don Blackie
Donald Dearness Blackie was an Australian Test cricketer who played only three Tests in the summer of 1928-29. At 46 years 253 days of age at the time of his Test debut, Blackie remains the oldest debutant in Australian Test cricket.-External links:*...
benefit match, which was also a Test trial, but was forced to withdraw after contracting rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...
in his shoulder. Nash's replacement, Hans Ebeling
Hans Ebeling
Hans Irvine Ebeling MBE was an Australian cricketer and cricket administrator....
, bowled well enough to secure a place in the tour squad instead.
Following the 1933 Premiership success, hopes were high for the 1934 VFL season
1934 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1934.-Premiership season:In 1934, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man...
, which was known as the Centenary Premiership year, in recognition of one hundred years since the European settlement of Victoria
History of Victoria
This article describes the history of the Australian state of Victoria.-Aboriginal history:The state of Victoria was originally home to many indigenous nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years...
. Nash continued to move between centre half-back and centre half-forward
Centre half-forward
In Australian rules football, the centre half-forward is a position on the half-forward line of a football field. The directly opposing player is a Centre-Half-Back....
, kicking 53 goals for the year (47 of which from 9 games) as well as playing a significant role in South Melbourne full-forward
Full-forward
Full-forward is a position in Australian rules football and Gaelic football with a key focus on kicking goals.Leading full-forwards of the Australian Football League are usually among those awarded with the Coleman Medal for the most goals in an AFL season....
Bob Pratt
Bob Pratt
Harold Robert "Bob" Pratt was a former Australian rules footballer from Mitcham, Victoria.Pratt played with South Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League from 1930–1939 and again in 1946, and with the Coburg Football Club in the Victorian Football Association from 1940 to 1941...
reaching a record 150 goals (although later in life Pratt would joke that Nash only kicked to him once "but that was a mistake.")
In August 1934, Nash was chosen to play for Victoria in an interstate match against South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
at the MCG, replacing the injured Pratt. Initially selected at centre half-forward, Nash had kicked 2 goals by the start of the second quarter when he was moved to full-forward to replace the injured Bill Mohr
Bill Mohr
Wilbur T "Bill" Mohr was an Australian rules footballer who played with the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League ....
and proceeded to kick a further 16 goals to finish with 18 goals, a record for a Victorian player and for the MCG as Victoria defeated South Australia 30.19 (199) to 14.10 (94). Brownlow Medallist Ivor Warne-Smith
Ivor Warne-Smith
Ivor Warne-Smith , was an Australian footballer, who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League and for the Latrobe Football Club in the North-Western Football Union in Tasmania...
wrote of Nash's performance; "his was a great achievement. He showed superb marking, good ground play, and accurate kicking. Some of his shots from left-foot snaps were gems… His performance has never been equalled." He later claimed he would have kicked 27 goals that day but for the selfishness of the rovers who refused to kick to him. Following the match, Dr B. Crellin, who attended the birth of Nash, publicly apologised to the South Australian side, claiming part responsibility for the mayhem inflicted by Nash.
South Melbourne finished the home and away series in third position, defeated Collingwood by three points in the first Semi-Final and Geelong by 60 points in the Preliminary Final, with Nash in brilliant form in the drizzling rain, kicking four goals.
Going into the 1934 Grand Final
1934 VFL Grand Final
The 1934 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Richmond Football Club and South Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 13 October 1934. It was the 38th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...
, South Melbourne were favourites to retain the premiership but while Nash kicked six goals and was adjudged one of the best players of the match, South Melbourne were defeated by Richmond by 39 points. Such was the surprise around South Melbourne's loss, there were post-match rumours of South players being offered and accepting bribes to play poorly and Bob Pratt and Peter Reville
Peter Reville
Peter Reville , Christened "Henry James", but adopted his fathers Christian name, was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne and Fitzroy in the VFL....
angrily confronted team mates who underperformed.
1935
Nash resigned his position at the sports store and followed in his father's footsteps by joining the Victorian police force on 14 January 1935, and at 5'9" only just reached the minimum height requirement. ConstableConstable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
Nash served in the South Melbourne area for two years before resigning, having made no arrests in that time.
Nash continued to cement his reputation as one of the top footballers in the country, being called "the most versatile player in Australia", as, in addition to playing at centre half-back and centre half-forward, he successfully played in the ruck
Ruckman (Australian rules football position)
In Australian rules football, a ruckman is typically a tall and athletic player who contests at centre bounces and stoppages . The ruckman is one of the most important players on the field...
.
Named at centre half-back for Victoria in the game against Western Australia, Nash arrived in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
with such a severe cold he was unable to train in the lead up to match. Nash injured his knee and ankle in Victoria's win over Western Australia in Perth in early July and was unable to train for a week. While Nash did not miss any matches due to the injuries, they bothered him throughout the season and he was forced to miss South Melbourne Footballers' weekly dance at the Lake Oval Social Hall. Although carrying injuries, Nash continued to show his versatility, playing around the ground and led South Melbourne to the Grand Final
1935 VFL Grand Final
The 1935 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and South Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 5 October 1935. It was the 39th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...
, their third in a row, only to be defeated by Collingwood.
At the end of the 1935 season, Nash was adjudged the Best Player in the VFL by the Sporting Globe, yet only came runner-up to Ron Hillis
Ron Hillis
Ron Hillis was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the VFL during the 1930s....
in South Melbourne's Best and Fairest.
1936
Appointed vice-captain of South Melbourne, Nash had his best Brownlow MedalBrownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
result in 1936, receiving ten votes and finishing equal sixteenth behind winner Denis Ryan
Denis Ryan
Denis 'Dinny' Ryan was an Australian rules footballer who played for Fitzroy in Victorian Football League during the 1930s....
, while at South Melbourne, Nash was voted runner-up in the Best and Fairest and was runner-up in the Leading Goalkicker award. Nash however was considered by many judges as the best footballer in Australia, being adjudged "VFL Best Player" by the Sporting Globe, "VFL Footballer of the Year" by the Melbourne Herald and "VFL Best Player of the Year" by The Australian, while newspapers reported that crowds "gasped" at the remarkable things he was able achieve with the ball.
South Melbourne finished the year as Minor Premier but lost to Collingwood in the Second Semi-Final, although Nash, at centre-half-back, was listed as one of South's best players in the match. South then won the Preliminary Final against Melbourne, with the dominance of Nash, again at centre-half-back, over his opponent Jack Mueller
Jack Mueller (footballer)
Jack Mueller was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League...
, himself one of the VFL's leading players, deciding the result of the final.
For the fourth season in a row, South Melbourne reached the Grand Final
1936 VFL Grand Final
The 1936 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and South Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 2 October 1936. It was the 40th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...
, only to lose, for the third season in a row, to Collingwood for the second time in a row. Nash kicked one goal in the Grand Final and was adjudged one of South's best players but Collingwood's Jack Ross's
Jack Ross (Australian footballer)
Richard John 'Jack' Ross was an Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League during the 1930s....
dogged tagging of Nash throughout the match was considered the decisive factor in Collingwood's win.
1937
Nash was selected as captain of South Melbourne for the 1937 season to replace the retiring Jack BissetJack Bisset
Jack Bisset was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and played for and coached the South Melbourne Football Club in the VFL. His surname is often spelt as Bissett and it is unclear which spelling is correct.Bisset started his football career at Nar Nar Goon,...
, becoming part of the first father and son team to captain a VFL/AFL side. It is thought that South Melbourne's newly appointed coach Roy Cazaly
Roy Cazaly
Roy Cazaly was an Australian rules football player famous for his high marks and ruck work, which gave rise to the phrase "Up There Cazaly".-Early life/career:...
influenced the selection of Nash as captain, as Cazaly, Nash's coach in Tasmania, believed Nash to be the best footballer ever. There was some controversy over Nash's selection as captain, as it had been expected that vice-captain Brighton Diggins
Brighton Diggins
Brighton Diggins was a former Australian rules footballer in the West Australian Football League and Victorian Football League....
would be named captain. In response, Diggins quit South.
South Melbourne did not enjoy the same level of success it had in the past four seasons, dropping to ninth position as retirements of some its key players from the previous four seasons, as well as injuries meant Nash was forced to play a lone hand for much of the year. Nash won the club goal kicking award with 37 goals.
Test comeback
Victorian Premier Cricket
Victorian Premier Cricket is the elite club cricket competition in the state of Victoria, administered by Cricket Victoria. Each club fields four teams of adult players and usually play on weekends and public holidays. Matches are played on turf wickets under limited-time rules, with most results...
, the Victorian selectors refused to select him and he never played a Sheffield Shield match). In 1936–1937 he topped the Victorian Premier Cricket
Victorian Premier Cricket
Victorian Premier Cricket is the elite club cricket competition in the state of Victoria, administered by Cricket Victoria. Each club fields four teams of adult players and usually play on weekends and public holidays. Matches are played on turf wickets under limited-time rules, with most results...
bowling averages.
Nash was chosen for Victoria against the touring English cricket team and responded with figures of 2/21 and 2/16 and had the tourists ducking and weaving with "several head and rib-hunting deliveries an over". By playing for Victoria in this match, Nash became the first person to represent two different states in cricket and Australian rules football. He remains one of only three players to do so (the others being Keith Miller and Neil Hawke
Neil Hawke
Neil James Napier Hawke was an Australian Test cricketer and leading Australian rules footballer.Born in Cheltenham, South Australia, Hawke quickly developed as a natural all-round sportsman who excelled in cricket, football and golf and made his senior Australian rules football debut for South...
).
In response to his bowling performance, Nash was picked for the deciding Fifth Test of the 1936–1937 Ashes series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with the sides locked at 2–2 in the series. His selection invoked complaints from the touring English side, where it was reported that a "feeling bordering on panic" had arisen at the thought of facing Nash during the Test. England captain Gubby Allen
Gubby Allen
Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen, CBE was a cricketer who played for Middlesex, Cambridge University, MCC and England. Australian-born, Allen was a fast bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman, who captained England in eleven Test matches...
pressed for Nash's banishment from the Australian team, organising a private lunch with Bradman, then Australian captain. Bradman refused to omit Nash, believing "his presence in the team would be a psychological threat to England whether he bowled bouncers or underarm grubbers". Allen then approached the Australian Board of Control
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
. It has been suggested that the Board of Control wanted to accede to Allen's demand and veto Nash's selection but were forced to relent when the selectors threatened to resign if Nash was not included. Finally, Allen informed the umpires that if Nash was to bowl one ball aimed at the body, he would immediately bring his batsmen off the ground.
Nash claimed 4/70 and 1/34 and scored a sedate 17 in seventy-five minutes (disappointing the crowd which "was expecting fireworks from him") as Australia clinched the series. Nash also took a number of catches, including Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Walter Reginald "Wally" Hammond was an English Test cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England...
off Bill O'Reilly and a spectacular catch to dismiss Ken Farnes
Ken Farnes
Kenneth Farnes was an English cricketer. He played in 15 Tests from 1934 to 1939.Farnes was born in Leytonstone, Essex, and was educated at the Royal Liberty School in Gidea Park. He made his first-class debut for Essex in 1930, aged only 19. He took 5-36 in his second county match against Kent...
, the last England batsman, pocketing the ball and a stump as souvenirs. When later asked about his inclusion, Nash replied "They knew where to come when they stood 2-all in the rubber."
The media was full of praise for Nash's performance in the Test, claiming that Nash was a much more reliable fast bowler than his "erratic" opening partner Ernie McCormick
Ernie McCormick
Ernest Leslie McCormick was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1935 to 1938....
. Nash was praised for his stamina, his ability to keep his footing and his direction during long bowling stints and his vicious yorker, which he used to dismiss Leslie Ames in the first innings and Joe Hardstaff junior
Joe Hardstaff junior
Joseph Hardstaff junior was an English cricketer, who played in twenty three Tests for England from 1935 to 1948...
in the second.
Bradman later wrote that Nash's bowling was scrupulously fair and that any bouncers were few and adhered to the spirit of cricket.
Cricket wilderness
Following the Test, Nash was selected for Victoria for their match against South AustraliaSouthern Redbacks
The South Australia cricket team, nicknamed the Southern Redbacks and known as the West End Redbacks due to their sponsorship agreement with local brewers West End, are an Australian first class cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia, and represent the state of South Australia...
at the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
in what would have been his first Sheffield Shield match. However, Nash was forced to withdraw and fly to Tasmania following his wife Irene's sudden collapse in Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
with peritonitis
Peritonitis
Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane that lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera. Peritonitis may be localised or generalised, and may result from infection or from a non-infectious process.-Abdominal pain and tenderness:The main manifestations of...
.
At the start of the 1937–1938 cricket season, it was expected that Nash would be chosen for the 1938 Ashes Tour
Australian cricket team in England in 1938
The 1938 Ashes series between Australia and England was drawn. England and Australia won a Test each, with two of the other Tests drawn and the third game of the series, scheduled for Manchester, abandoned without a ball being bowled, only the second instance of this in more than 60 years of Test...
, with one journalist stating that if he was not selected, the team "would not be truly representative of our nation's real cricketing strength." Nash continued to terrorise batsmen in district cricket, including the rare occurrence of taking all 10 wickets in an innings (for 35 runs) for South Melbourne against Prahran in 1938, but was not selected for Victoria throughout the season. Nash's non-selection for Victoria led some Victorian Cricket Association delegates to publicly question why "the best fast bowler in Australia, and probably the world, is not chosen to represent Victoria" and demand that the Victorian selectors explain their non-selection of Nash.
Nash's first-class career ended at the age of 26. His 10 wickets at 12.60 places him fourth on the list of averages for bowlers to have taken 10 or more Test wickets (and the best by an Australian). His 22 first-class matches reaped 69 wickets at 28.33 and 953 runs at 28.02.
A young Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
also played for the South Melbourne Cricket Club and gained his first wicket in district cricket from a catch by Nash. Miller later declared that the non-selection of Nash as a regular Test player was "the greatest waste of talent in Australian cricket history", adding that Australian captain Don Bradman wanted Nash in the side to tour England in 1938 but that Nash "suffered injustices at the hands of high-level cricket administration", who refused to consider his selection.
The reasons given for the administrators' disinclination towards Nash include his reputation for blunt speech, his abrasive personality, which included sledging
Sledging (cricket)
Sledging is a term used in cricket to describe the practice whereby some players seek to gain an advantage by insulting or verbally intimidating the opposing player. The purpose is to try to weaken the opponent's concentration, thereby causing him to make mistakes or underperform...
and even the fact that he wore cut off sleeves, which was considered a serious faux pas in the 1930s. Nash himself believed it was due to his working-class background, saying "I didn't wear the old school tie. I was a working man's son. I didn't fit in".
Transfer to Camberwell
After being sought by VFL side St Kilda as a possible coach for the 1938 season, Nash caused a sensation in the football world in 1938 when he transferred from South Melbourne to CamberwellCamberwell Football Club
Camberwell Football Club was an Australian rules football club who were formed in 1896 and competed in the Victorian Football Association between 1926 and 1990. Nicknamed the Cobras, Camberwell wore dark blue, white and red club colours...
in the rival Victorian Football Association (VFA) without a clearance. Although one of the highest paid players in the VFL, Nash accepted an offer of £8/week to captain/coach Camberwell Football Club, £3/week to captain/coach Camberwell Cricket Club and a job as a Camberwell Council
City of Camberwell
The City of Camberwell was a Local Government Area located about east of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1914 until 1994.-History:...
official.
South Melbourne and the VFL objected to the transfer and South Melbourne sent out a public appeal for a job for Nash that would match that offered by Camberwell but nothing suitable was forthcoming. There were also threats of legal action against Nash and Camberwell, which did not eventuate, although the VFL banned Nash from playing in their competition for three years.
Nash was immediately appointed captain of Camberwell Football Club and quickly became one of the most popular figures in the VFA, drawing large crowds to even practice matches. Playing mainly at centre-half-back, Nash was runner-up in the 1938 Camberwell Best and Fairest and won the 1939 Best and Fairest. Nash spent four seasons at Camberwell, where he played 74 games and kicked 418 goals, including 141 in 1941. At the start of the 1940 season Nash was still considered amongst the best footballers in the country and, with the transfer of former South Melbourne team mate Bob Pratt and Collingwood full-forward Ron Todd
Ron Todd (footballer)
Ronald Walford Todd was an Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League in the 1930s, and with Williamstown in the Victorian Football Association in the 1940s. Todd was an acrobatic and pacy forward, possessing a strong overhead mark...
to rival VFA sides Coburg and Williamstown
Williamstown Football Club
The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed The Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne and are currently playing in the Victorian Football League...
respectively, there was talk that the VFA, traditionally the lesser of the two leagues, would now match the VFL for crowds.
Nash was officially appointed Captain/Coach of Camberwell Cricket Club on 19 September 1938 and his debut for the club in the summer of 1938–1939 meant that he was the first person to be paid for playing grade cricket in Australia.
War service
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Nash enlisted on 2 February 1942.
Realising the potential public relations coup in having a star sportsman enlist, officers recommended that Nash be seconded to the Army School of Physical Training (where Don Bradman had been given a commission), which offered greater pay and rank and ensured that Nash would not be posted overseas, away from family. Additionally, a medical examination detected osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis also known as degenerative arthritis or degenerative joint disease, is a group of mechanical abnormalities involving degradation of joints, including articular cartilage and subchondral bone. Symptoms may include joint pain, tenderness, stiffness, locking, and sometimes an effusion...
in both his knees, derived from the number of injuries he sustained throughout his footballing career. Nash refused, stating that he did not wish to be treated differently to ordinary recruits, and enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
, gaining the rank of Trooper
Trooper (rank)
Trooper from the French "troupier" is the equivalent rank to private in a regiment with a cavalry tradition in the British Army and many other Commonwealth armies, including those of Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. Today, most cavalry units operate in the armoured role, equipped...
.
Nash was posted to the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, which had seen action in the Syria-Lebanon
Syria-Lebanon campaign
The Syria–Lebanon campaign, also known as Operation Exporter, was the Allied invasion of Vichy French-controlled Syria and Lebanon, in June–July 1941, during World War II. Time Magazine referred to the fighting as a "mixed show" while it was taking place and the campaign remains little known, even...
and the Netherlands East Indies campaigns. The 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion was sent to the South West Pacific theatre
South West Pacific theatre of World War II
The South West Pacific Theatre, technically the South West Pacific Area, between 1942 and 1945, was one of two designated area commands and war theatres enumerated by the Combined Chiefs of Staff of World War II in the Pacific region....
, supporting the 7th Division in the New Guinea campaign
New Guinea campaign
The New Guinea campaign was one of the major military campaigns of World War II.Before the war, the island of New Guinea was split between:...
and fought in the Finisterre Range campaign
Finisterre Range campaign
The Finisterre Range campaign, also known as the Ramu Valley–Finisterre Range campaign, was a series of actions in the New Guinea campaign of World War II...
in the advance to Lae
Lae
Lae, the capital of Morobe Province, is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located at the start of the Highlands Highway which is the main land transport corridor from the Highlands region to the coast...
.
Throughout his tour of duty Nash had been wary of preferential treatment towards him due to his fame and opposed any attempts to promote him, which he believed he did not deserve. However, a jeep crash resulted in further injury to Nash's knees and ultimately led to a medical discharge from the Army on 18 February 1944. Following his return to Australia, Nash sold War Bonds and appeared at war-related charity functions, including one where he raised an additional £100 by singing to the large crowd.
Although Nash would claim that he was never prouder than when he was a soldier, always wore his Returned Services League (RSL) badge and eagerly attended reunions of the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, he never marched on Anzac Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
or applied for the campaign medals for which he was eligible.
Postwar sport
1945 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1945.-Premiership season:In 1945, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man...
and sought to return to South Melbourne, rather than Camberwell, to which he was still contracted. Camberwell declined Nash's transfer application and both clubs stated that they would be naming Nash in their respective sides for Round One.
A further problem arose when it was discovered that during the war Nash had played two games for his old boy scout troop, the 6th Melbourne Scouts, while on leave. In early 1945, VFL administrators passed a rule stating that any player who had transferred from the League to another competition must remain out of football for five years before being allowed to re-register with the VFL.
After an appeal by South Melbourne, a special meeting of the VFL was held to amend the rules so ex-servicemen would not be penalised for playing in minor matches. The amendment was made the day before the commencement of the 1945 season, allowing Nash to take his place for South Melbourne in their Round One match against St Kilda.
Nash was slower and more portly than he was in the 1930s, short of match practice and forced to spend most Sundays in hospital having fluid drained from his injured knees swollen from the exertions of the day before, forcing South Melbourne coach Bull Adams
Bill Adams (Australian footballer)
William 'Bill' Adams was an Australian rules footballer who played for Fitzroy and Melbourne in the Victorian Football League before becoming coach of South Melbourne. He also went by his nickname of 'Bull' during his career.Adams was originally from South Fremantle where he played 32 games from...
to nurse Nash through the season. Additionally, in the Round Five match against Footscray, he tore the webbing between his fingers which later became infected, causing him to miss the Round Six match against North Melbourne
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
and although Nash wore a special leather glove to protect his hand, the injury would trouble him for the rest of the season.
Despite these setbacks, Nash could still be a match winner and many opposition players saw him as the key player for South Melbourne. Nash's best return for the year was seven goals against St Kilda in Round 12 and he twice kicked six goals in a match; against Geelong in Round 15 and Fitzroy in Round 18. When an opposition player did well against Nash, it was something to savour; years later leading Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
player Don "Mopsy" Fraser
Don Fraser, Jr.
Don Fraser Junior was an Australian rules footballer who played in the VFL between 1945 and 1952 for the Richmond Football Club.Known as "Mopsy", he is still regarded as one of the most rugged players ever to play in the VFL, serving a total 16 weeks in suspensions whilst at the Tigers...
wrote "Trouncing Nash does a lot for your confidence, even an ageing Nash."
The "Bloodbath" Grand Final
South Melbourne were favourites to win the 1945 VFL Grand Final1945 VFL Grand Final
The 1945 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the South Melbourne Football Club and Carlton Football Club, held at Princes Park in Melbourne on 29 September 1945. It was the 49th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers...
against underdogs Carlton, who made the finals on percentage and had to play a number of elimination matches to reach the Grand Final. Named at full-forward, at 35 years and 150 days, Nash was the oldest player in the Grand Final. Standing Nash was Carlton full-back Vin Brown
Vin Brown
Edward Vincent "Vin" Brown was an Australian rules footballer who played for Carlton in the Victorian Football League during the 1940s....
, who was 14 years younger and quicker and the only Carlton player considered strong enough to match Nash in a one-on-one contest.
Carlton unnerved South Melbourne with a tough, physical game, with several South players being knocked unconscious. As a result Nash was being distracted from his game and was not playing as well as usual. Early in the final quarter of the spiteful match, which Carlton was leading, Nash led out to take a mark when he saw Carlton's captain Bob Chitty
Bob Chitty
Bob Chitty was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League .Chitty made his debut for the Carlton Football Club in Round 7 of the 1937 season...
running towards him. Nash turned and king-hit Chitty with what he later described as the sweetest punch he had ever thrown, knocking Chitty out, breaking his jaw and leaving a large wound over his left eye which required several stitches. As the umpire was unsighted, Nash went unreported over this incident. Rumours circulated about the clash, as it saw Chitty, a renowned hard man, knocked out for the only time in his career. One rumour purported that Nash had used a martial arts move he had been taught in the army to knock Chitty out, while another was aired by Carlton coach Percy Bentley
Percy Bentley
Percy Bentley was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League.Bentley was a strong ruckman and great tactician who was a key player and coach for the Richmond Football Club during his era...
who publicly claimed that a South Melbourne player had hidden a piece of metal in the leather guard the player wore to protect his injured hand which exacerbated Chitty's injury. Bentley did not name a specific player but as Nash was the only player in the match wearing a leather guard, it was obvious who Bentley was referring to.
After Carlton's win over South, Nash's opponent Brown was a consensus pick for best player on ground. Nash was described as a "sad figure… age and injury had reduced him to almost a caricature, a lion in winter simply going through the motions. His body was no longer capable of performing the feats that a decade earlier had seen him feted as the finest footballer to ever play the game." All up, Nash played 17 games for South in 1945, kicking 56 goals, leaving him with 99 VFL matches and 246 goals. Nash also played three matches for Victoria, kicking 19 goals.
Post-war cricket
On 18 February 1944, the day he was discharged from the Army, Nash played an internal trial match for South Melbourne and although he had not played competitive cricket for four years, immediately became a leading player for South.Post-VFL footballing career
Nash trained with South Melbourne during the 1946 pre-season but ultimately retired from VFL football to accept a position as captain-coach of the Ovens and Murray Football League side WangarattaWangaratta Football Club
The Wangaratta Magpies Football Club, officially known as the Wangaratta Magpies Football & Netball Club is an Australian rules football club which play in the Ovens and Murray Football League based in Wangaratta, Victoria at the Wangaratta Showgrounds....
for a salary of £12 per week, four times the wage he would have received playing for South Melbourne. The high wage also meant that Nash was not required to find additional employment to cover his family's expenses, and in so doing, became one of the first fully professional Australian rules football players.
Nash not only led Wangaratta to a premiership but, as a favour to a friend, also coached another country side, Greta
Greta, Victoria
Greta is a district in Victoria, Australia, located east of Benalla, in the Rural City of Wangaratta. At the 2006 census, Greta and the surrounding area had a population of 231.-History:...
in 1946, leading them to a premiership in the Ovens and King Football League, becoming one of the few people to have coached two different teams to a premiership in the same season. Nash is still remembered in Greta for placing a football in a cowpat and placekicking it over a tall gum tree.
In 1947, Nash was appointed captain-coach of Casterton
Casterton, Victoria
Casterton is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Glenelg Highway, 42 kilometres east of the South Australian border, in the Shire of Glenelg. The Glenelg River passes through the town...
, in western Victoria. He took Casterton to a grand final that season, losing by a point. The grand final would be Nash's final official game as a player, although he did play in charity matches for some years.
South Melbourne coach
Nash's success as a coach in country football lead South Melbourne to appoint him as coach for the 1953 VFL season1953 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1953.-Premiership season:In 1953, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man...
. Following his appointment, Nash confidently predicted that he would coach South Melbourne to a premiership that year and at the halfway point of the season South were tipped to play in the finals but injuries to key players led to five consecutive losses and at the end of the season South Melbourne had won nine games and lost nine games to finish eighth in the twelve team competition.
There was some criticism of Nash as a coach as he apparently could not understand how players were unable to do things on the football field that came to him naturally. Nash had signed a two year contract, yet the South Melbourne committee re-advertised the position of coach following the end of the 1953 season and while Nash applied, he was not reappointed. Fellow South Melbourne champion Bob Skilton
Bob Skilton
Robert John "Bob" Skilton was an Australian rules football player who played as a rover for South Melbourne and Victoria between 1956 and 1971....
claimed that had Nash been given time, he "would have become one of the all-time great coaches".
Post-sporting career
World of Sport (Australian TV series)
World of Sport was an Australian sports program that was broadcast live by HSV 7 in Melbourne from 1959 to 1987 on Sundays between 11am and 2pm...
, to comment on Australian rules football and point out that there had not been a player of his ability in the VFL since his retirement.
In his newspaper column, Nash did not shy away from controversy, claiming on one occasion that Sir Donald Bradman had openly "roasted" a number of leading Australian cricketers for their performance during a Test. The claim sparked an angry response from Bradman, who claimed "everything in the article as attributed to me is completely without foundation in every particular."
In addition to his positions in the media, Nash was also a publican, which proved so financially successfully he was able to pay cash for a house in the upmarket Melbourne suburb of South Yarra
South Yarra, Victoria
South Yarra is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Stonnington and Melbourne...
. An altercation with a drunken patron resulted in a broken left hip and forced Nash to sell his hotel, the Prince Alfred in Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne, Victoria
Port Melbourne is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km southwest of Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government areas are the cities of Port Phillip and Melbourne. At the 2006 Census, Port Melbourne had a population of 13,293....
and gain employment as a clerk in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, a position he held until his mandatory retirement at 65.
Along with fellow former Test cricketer Lindsay Hassett
Lindsay Hassett
Arthur Lindsay Hassett MBE was a cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. The diminutive Hassett was an elegant middle-order batsman, described by Wisden as, "... a master of nearly every stroke ... his superb timing, nimble footwork and strong wrists enabled him to make batting look a...
, Nash voluntarily served on the executive committee of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria and worked closely with the aboriginal community of Melbourne, partly in recognition of his old friend Doug Nicholls, a former VFL footballer and leading figure in the Indigenous community. He also turned his interest to fishing, stating that he felt "edgy" if he did not go fishing a couple of times a week.
Nash strongly opposed the relocation of South Melbourne Football Club to Sydney (renamed the Sydney Swans) in 1981, considering it a repudiation of the proud South Melbourne he had helped create. Nash stated that he had given fifty years to South Melbourne but due to the relocation they had now lost him forever and refused to attend Swans matches for many years, relenting only shortly before his death to attend a match between Sydney and Footscray.
Nash was forced to have a pin and plate inserted in his broken left hip and as a result walked with a profound limp. He also began to drink and eat more and stopped his exercise routine, leading him to become bloated, "like an old, red balloon that had been slightly let down".
Nash's father Bob Senior collapsed and died in 1958 while at the MCG watching Collingwood win the 1958 VFL Grand Final
1958 VFL Grand Final
The 1958 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 20 September 1958. It was the 62nd annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the...
. Laurie Nash later said that it would have been the perfect way for his father to die. Nash's brother Bob Junior died of emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
in the early 1970s, while in 1975 Irene Nash, who had been in poor health for some time, died, leaving Nash heartbroken. Every day for five years he visited the cemetery where her remains were scattered.
In 1980 Nash met twice widowed Doreen Hutchison and eventually moved in with her. While they never married, Doreen answered to the name "Mrs Nash". When Doreen died suddenly from a heart attack in 1985, Nash's health quickly deteriorated and he suffered a stroke in early 1986. Visitors to Nash's bedside remarked that Nash could not believe his own mortality.
Following a succession of strokes, Nash died in the Repatriation Hospital in Heidelberg, Victoria
Heidelberg, Victoria
Heidelberg is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Banyule....
on 24 July 1986, aged 76. Survived by his daughter Noelene and grandsons Anthony and Simon, a service for Nash was held at a Catholic church in Melbourne and his cremated remains were scattered at Fawkner Memorial Park, near that of his wife Irene.
Style
Nash's great sporting success can be partly attributed to his self-confidence. Once, when asked who was the greatest footballer he had ever seen, Nash replied "I see him in the mirror every morning when I shave".Yet, whilst Nash tended to sound arrogant in public, he was very modest about his success in private; in fact, his daughter Noelene was not aware of her father's sporting success until aged 12 when a friend's father told her.
Footballing style
Nash was a superbly fit athlete who never smoked, drank rarely, and dedicated himself to a punishing exercise regime; something rare in 1930s sports circles.Legendary Richmond Football Club
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
player and coach Jack Dyer
Jack Dyer
John Raymond Dyer Sr. OAM , always known as Jack Dyer, was one of the colossal figures of Australian rules football during two distinct careers, firstly as a player and coach of the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1931 and 1952, and later in the broadcast media for...
asserted that Nash was "Inch for inch, pound for pound, the greatest player in the history of Australian Rules", adding "He was the only man I knew who could bite off more than he could chew and chew it."
In the view of champion Collingwood full-forward Gordon Coventry
Gordon Coventry
Gordon "Nuts" Coventry was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League . With 1,299 goals over 18 seasons, Coventry remains one of the greatest full forwards the game has ever seen...
, whose record of 1299 VFL career goals between 1920 and 1937 would not be surpassed for 62 years, if Nash had played at full-forward for his entire career, he would have kicked more goals than anyone, Coventry included. In 1936 Coventry stated that Nash was the best player he had seen; "No player is more versatile, for he can play anywhere. He is fast, has great control of the ball, kicks with either foot and has that little bit of "devil" so essential in the makeup of a champion of to-day."
Fellow footballer Vic Richardson
Vic Richardson
Victor York Richardson OBE was a leading Australian sportsman of the 1920s and 1930s, captaining the Australian cricket team and the South Australian Australian rules football team, representing Australia in baseball and South Australia in golf, winning the South Australian state tennis title and...
wrote in 1968 that Nash "was faster than any player I have seen in getting the ball moving to players running on. Add his high marking ability and speed to his quick thinking and you had a player who practically originated today's style of play and one who would be unbeatable at it."
In retirement, Nash was asked why he never won a Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
(the award for the Best and Fairest player in the VFL). He replied, "I was never the best and fairest but I reckon I might have been the worst and dirtiest. I played it hard and tough."
Cricketing style
Nash's batting stance was described as "peculiar".
His bat touches the turf in line with the off-stump, but his feet are well clear of the leg stump. He grips the bat near the tip of the handle, and it gives an impression that the bat is inordinately long.
After making a duck
Duck (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a duck refers to a batsman's dismissal for a score of zero.-Origin of the term:The term is a shortening of the term "duck's egg", the latter being used long before Test cricket began...
in the first innings of the match between Tasmania and the touring Australian side in March 1930, members of the Australian side advised Nash to change his stance, stating that it was too unorthodox to be successful. Nash ignored this advice and promptly scored 93 in the second innings of the match.
Nash's bowling action has been described as letting "the ball go with a furious arm action, as if a fortune depended on every ball", making "the ball fizz as he charged through the crease at a speed that always appeared likely to topple him over." Another witness added "there was little beauty in his bowling. He sprinted to the wicket faster than most bowlers but had an almost round-arm flipping delivery" which made him the most dangerous bowler in Australia on lively pitches. In 1990, famed Australian historian Manning Clark
Manning Clark
Charles Manning Hope Clark, AC , an Australian historian, was the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume A History of Australia, published between 1962 and 1987...
recalled Nash's bowling when he wrote of the period in the 1930s when he was an opening batsman for the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne Cricket Club
The University of Melbourne Cricket Club, often called simply "University", plays the sport of cricket in the elite club competition of Melbourne, Australia, known as Victorian Premier Cricket. The club was founded in 1856 and played its first season of premier cricket in 1906–07. Known as...
in Victorian district cricket and had to draw on his mother's strength to help him "face Laurie Nash at the South Melbourne ground without flinching."
Nash was also complimented on his control, stamina and "an ever present confidence in his ability", which, combined with his speed, made him a formidable bowler. Additionally, Nash was also praised for his fielding in almost any position, with one scribe referring to his "amazingly athletic ability".
Other sports
Nash also excelled in other sports, winning awards in golfGolf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
and quoits
Quoits
Quoits is a traditional game which involves the throwing of metal, rope or rubber rings over a set distance, usually to land over or near a spike . The sport of quoits encompasses several distinct variations.-The history of quoits:The history of quoits is disputed...
, including the Australian cricket team's 1932 deck quoits championship at the Oriental Hotel in Melbourne, defeating Clarrie Grimmett
Clarrie Grimmett
Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett was a cricketer; although born in New Zealand, he played most of his cricket in Australia. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.Grimmett was born in Caversham a suburb of Dunedin,...
in the final. Nash's natural skills in any sport he tried led former first-class cricketer Johnnie Moyes
Johnnie Moyes
Alban George "Johnny" Moyes MBE MC was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Victoria. Following his brief playing career, Moyes, a professional journalist, he later gained greater fame as a writer and commentator on the game.As a right-hand batsman Moyes scored 883 runs at an average of...
to call Nash "one of the finest all-round athletes of the century".
Honours and legacy
In addition to the awards he received during his playing career, Nash was awarded accolades for his sporting prowess after his retirement.Nash was made a life member of South Melbourne Football Club in 1960 and following his death, the Sydney Swans wore black armbands in their match against Carlton, named their Best and Fairest Award the "Laurie Nash Medal", in 2003 named him at centre-half-forward in their "Team of the Century" and in 2009 named him as an inaugural member of their Hall of Fame. The central place Nash held at the Swans was illustrated in 2005, when following Sydney's grand final win
2005 AFL Grand Final
The 2005 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 2005. It was the 109th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, staged to...
, a cartoon appeared in the Melbourne Herald Sun, featuring Swans players surrounding Nash, who was wearing his South Melbourne guernsey and was drinking from the premiership cup.
In 1987 Nash was made a foundation member of the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame and named at centre-half-back in the Tasmanian Australian rules "Team of the Century". When he was selected for the Australian Football Hall of Fame
Australian Football Hall of Fame
The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coaches and administrators. It was initially established...
in 1996, the summary commented "One of the most gifted players ever, his career was half as long as many but it shone twice as brightly as most. Considered by many judges (himself included) the best player in the land…".
Test batsman Merv Harvey
Merv Harvey
Mervyn Roye Harvey was a cricketer who played in one Test match for Australia in 1947. His younger brother, Neil, was one of Australia's finest batsmen since the Second World War, and the pair played together for Victoria during the latter part of Merv’s career.Merv Harvey broke into the Victorian...
once claimed that his greatest achievement was scoring runs off Nash's bowling, which he classed as the fastest he had ever faced, in a club match.
Author Ian Shaw called Nash "perhaps the greatest all-round sportsman Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
has ever produced", while some fans old enough to remember Nash at his peak list him as the greatest player they ever saw and a football journalist who failed to include Nash in a "Best Ever" list was the target of a letter writing campaign from elderly fans.
Additionally, by way of a folk memorial, he is recalled in the Australian vernacular term "Laurie Nash", rhyming slang for "cash" and is mentioned in the 1993 novel Going Away by award winning journalist Martin Flanagan.
See also
- List of cricketers called for throwing in major cricket matches in Australia
- List of Australian rules football and cricket players