1922 The Playing Coach
	The appointment of David Teague for 2008 raised a few eyebrows and had people searching back for the last playing coach of a senior club.  But the circumstances pale into insignificance compared to an odd situation back in 1922 whan Hawthorn, then in the V.F.A. also appointed a  playing coach - a slight difficulty being that he actually played for Port Melbourne ...

The brief answer favoured by organisers of "Trivia Night" is that William Walton played with Port Melbourne in 1922 after he was appointed coach of fellow V.F.A. club Hawthorn at the start of the season.

Sadly, the limited amount of material on the internal operations of a very modest Association club of the day as Hawthorn were casts some doubts on just how involved Walton was on a week-by-week basis.

Walton had played five seasons with Port; 1913 to 1915, leading their goal-kicking with 41 goals in 1914, and then post-war in 1920 and 1921.  In the intervening years, he established a fine career in 1918 and 1919 with neighbours South Melbourne, playing 27 games for nine goals, playing at centre-half forward in their 1918 premiership and centre-half back when runners-up the following season, a year where he also represented Victoria..

"William Walton has been elected captain at Hawthorn with J. Jackson as vice-captain.  The latter took charge of the team against Geelong Association pending the former's clearance being obtained"  (The Argus on the opening round of matches, May 12, 1922).

But despite Walton's long service (he had by then appeared in about 80 of a total of 93 games that club records reveal he played), Port, the 1921 runners-up, seemingly smelt the prospect of a premiership and refused to clear any players, Walton included.

Sadly, the local newspaper in Hawthorn only covered the Reporter Cup, an eastern district competition that extended out as far as Vermont and just how closely involved Walton was in coaching the Association club in answer to our Trivia Question is a little unclear.   Walton appears to have been in some conflict with his old club and he didn’t appear in Port's colours until June 10 (round 6) when he played against the new Geelong Association team, but Terry Keenan's "A State of Port". an anecdotal history of the Port Melbourne club suggests Walton was given leave to coach Hawthorn during the week.

Coincidentally, the week after Walton resumed playing, Hawthorn and Port played each other, and Walton showed little mercy for his "new" club, being nominated by The Argus as Port's "best and most consistent player".

Hawthorn looked a chance for their first appearance in a V.F.A. final mid-year, but they lost form over the final rounds and narrowly missed out.    They did, however, have a couple of moments in the sunshine.

In the opening round, they played the new and ultimately short-lived Geelong Association team.  The new club was heavily supported by the local Council, somewhat concerned that the slowly-growing professionalism was alienating the local population, but the Mayor, Alderman Hitchens perhaps muddied the waters a little by offering prizes of £3/3/- and £2/2/- for the player kicking the first and last goal of the match respectively, both sums heading off to Hawthorn in their 33 point win.

Hawthorn also created a new record in posting 30.31.211 against Prahran on August 5 to record the first 200-plus score in Victorian senior football.

Port Melbourne went on to take out yet another controversial V.F.A. premiership, defeating Footscray by two points in the final at North Melbourne.

Rumours persisted in the week leading up to the final that four key Port players, including Walton, 1926-27 Preston captain-coach Len "Gus" Dobrigh, and George Ogilvie had been offered bribes to "play dead" by Footscray officials desperate to have their club promoted into the League competition.

Port Melbourne delegates following the win confirmed the accusations, further suggesting Ogilvie had been approached by a Footscray player "prior to and even during course of the game", £20 to "stop dead".  

An enquiry by the VFA Honorary Commissioners (certainly no "kangaroo court", the three members including later long-serving Prime Minister and Queen's Counsel Sir Robert Menzies and Walter. T. Rylah, a Victorian Solicitor-General for many years) subsequently charged a former Footscray player Vernon Banbury and George Sayer, the president of the Footscray club with attempting to bribe two of the Port players.  Banbury was later disqualified for life (he was somewhat controversially elected a Life Member of Footscray the following season) and Sayer exonerated, although he stepped down from all positions at the club.

Walton the following year was cleared to Hawthorn where he managed to lift the moderately performed club into fourth position, their only finals appearance in nine V.F.A. seasons before they were a shock addition to League ranks along with Footscray and North Melbourne in 1925