Alec Albiston

Who is Alec Albiston?

Alec Marsh Albiston was an Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League and with North Melbourne for his final season. A goalkicking rover, he was captain and coach of Hawthorn between 1947 and 1949. He was the first player in the history of the club to kick 10 goals in a match, doing so against North Melbourne in the opening round of the 1940 season.

Albiston won the Hawthorn best and fairest award in both 1941 and 1946. He topped the Hawks' goalkicking charts four times during his career, in 1939, 1941, 1942 and 1945.

Albiston was involved in a nasty off season split at Hawthorn in 1949; Albiston had accepted that he would not be coaching in 1950, but a committeeman had promised him the captaincy, whereas Bob McCaskill had wanted Kevin Curran as captain and this caused a huge internal fight. Brownlow Medallist Col Austen sided with Albiston, but the committee sided with the new coach and Albiston and Austen were given open clearances; Albiston to North Melbourne and Austen to Richmond. With the loss of its best two players, Hawthorn finished 1950 in last without a win.

In 2011 he was inducted into the Hawthorn Football Club Hall of Fame.