AFL top 100: What's in a name?

What’s in a name? Sometimes a lot, but at other times very little.

The surname Heinz presented a real problem to George Heinz, who played his 87th and last game for Geelong in 1914 a month short of his 23rd birthday.

It was a semi-final against South Melbourne, 39 days after the commencement of World War 1, and South Melbourne (now Sydney) stormed home to win by seven points.

Anti-German sentiment was high, and George changed his surname to Haines and joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), thus curtailing a highly promising football career while he served in the army until the end of the war.

When he returned to VFL football in 1919, it was as captain-coach of Melbourne where – despite being a rover and captain-coach – he won the goal kicking in his first year.

He played his last game for Melbourne in 1925 (96 years ago) after 106 games and 97 goals for the club. He still remains in 79th position on the Demons’ top 100 goal-scoring list.

Two other players who changed their names during their playing career, Brian Lake and Heritier Lumumba, both commenced their AFL careers this century and both changed their surnames mid-career for family reasons.

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Brian Lake commenced his career at the Western Bulldogs as Brian Harris (his mother’s surname) but in 2007 he changed it to Lake, to ensure his father’s surname would continue to live on.

He also believed that his best chance of playing in a premiership was to change clubs.

So when he became a free agent in 2013 he moved to Hawthorn with immediate success, winning the Norm Smith Medal for best player and a premiership in his first year. He played in two more flag sides in the next two years.

Heritier’s birth name was Lumumba, courtesy of his Congolese father. He was born in Brazil, but moved to Australia with his mother.

His name was changed to O’Brien when she married his Australian step-father and his first name was anglicised to Harry. He played under that name at Claremont, the Western Australian club from which Collingwood recruited him.

During his AFL career he changed his name back to his father’s name and dropped the nickname Harry.

In his career at Collingwood, he played 199 AFL games and currently sits in 37th place on Collingwood’s top 100 game players of all time.

(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

The most fascinating one of all time is also a Collingwood legend, Paddy Rowan, whose real name was Percy Rowe.

Rowan had to play under an assumed name because his previous club, South Bendigo, had not granted him a clearance.

Rowan was another player whose career was also curtailed by war, but for him there was no return: he died on the Western Front at the Somme on December 5, 1916.

A charismatic person, he was a professional boxer under the name Paddy Rowan in John Wren’s boxing troupe.

Most other name changes were minor or nicknames given to players as substitute first names before, during or even after their football careers.

Among the 12,942 players who have played an AFL/VFL match, many had nicknames that were mundane and generally accepted variations of their given name.

Unlike the six Jacks that played for St Kilda this year, most previous Jacks were in fact Johns, most Berts were Alberts or similar (but not Carlton’s Bert Deacon), most Bills’ real names were William, and most Jims and Bobs were Jameses and Roberts respectively.

A lot of the nicknames originated from the fertile minds of club supporters, and many would not meet the standard of political correctness required today.

In fact, many were outright racist or extremely derogatory and should never be seen or heard of again. Hawthorn’s ‘Darky’ Nalder is a perfect example.

Ron Nalder was 19th man in Hawthorn’s first premiership in 1961 and was centreman in the 1963 loss to Geelong.

Many other nicknames have stood the test of time are are well established in the folklore of Australian football.

In my next article I will nominate my top 100 nicknames, most of which are associated with the champions of the last 124 years.