Career: 1948-1957
Games: 153
Goals: 474
Brownlow Medal: 27 career votes
Guernsey number: 7
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 78 kg
DOB: December 13th, 1928 (Debut 19y 130d - last game 28y 231 d)
In Australian Football the glamour position has become that of full-forward. High scoring and spectacular marking are two of the most crowd-pleasing aspects of the game, and more often than not it is the player at the spearhead who combines both these attributes.
As a consequence, the man in the goal mouth is usually the idol of his club’s supporters, while the best of them, the season’s top goal kicker, becomes the toast of the football world, is awarded the Coleman Medal, and is normally ranked just below the year’s Brownlow Medallist.
Until 19 August 1995, North Melbourne’s most prolific goal-scorer in its League years was Jock Spencer, who spent 10 years in front of goals from 1948 to 1957. During that period, he created a club record of 475 goals, and this stood for 38 years until it was overtaken by John Longmire.
A Kensington boy, Jock was born on 13 December 1928. Before graduating to North’s seniors, he was a member of the North Melbourne under-19s first premiership team, and was their forward. His personal triumphs include being part of North’s first grand final team, taking off the Syd Barker Trophy in 1951, topping the club’s goal kicking list on seven occasions (later shared with John Dugdale), and being named a life member of the club.
Beyond the confines of North itself, his most notable accomplishments were his interstate games. The highlight of these were his being selected ahead of the great John Coleman as spearhead for Victoria in 1952, kicking six goals against Western Australia, and his performances at the Carnival Series in Perth in 1956, from which he emerged the leading goal kicker with 17. Despite that telling tally, he was unaccountably omitted from the All-Australian team in which he so richly deserved to be included. All told, he wore the Big V on seven occasions.
Spencer’s ten years with North read like a statistician’s handbook, so a schematic form is probably the best way of studying his performances in detail from 1948 to 1957.
Profile from 'The North Story'
VFL/AFL: 5777th player to appear
North Melbourne: 401st player to appear
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