Neil Pearson (footballer)

Neil Alan Pearson
Personal information
Full name Neil Alan Pearson
Date of birth 9 September 1925
Place of birth Ballarat, Victoria
Date of death 27 April 2011(2011-04-27) (aged 85)
Original team(s) Brighton Technical School
Height 175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 73 kg (161 lb)
Position(s) Wingman
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1945–1954 Hawthorn 133 (44)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1954.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Neil Alan Pearson (9 September 1925 – 27 April 2011)[1] was an Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Family

The son of Leslie John Ramsay Pearson, and May Eleanor Pearson, née Brown, Neil Alan Pearson was born at Ballarat, on 9 September 1925.

His younger brother Ian played at St Kilda and Hawthorn.

Military service

Pearson enlisted three weeks after his eighteenth birthday, serving in Townsville and New Guinea with the Royal Australian Air Force.[2]

Football

Pearson made his debut in the opening round of the 1945 VFL season against Essendon and kicked four goals.[3]

A wingman, he was a solid performer for Hawthorn and brought up his 100th league game in 1952. He represented Victoria at the 1953 Adelaide Carnival, where they went undefeated.

Despite only playing 13 games in the 1953 season, Pearson was Hawthorn's equal leading vote-getter at the Brownlow Medal count that year.[4]

He won a Gardiner Medal in 1954 as playing coach of the reserves but also participated in seven VFL games during the year.[5]

Honours and achievements

Individual

Notes

  1. ^ "AFL Annual Report 2011 - Obituaries" (PDF). Australian Football League. p. 113. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  2. ^ Nominal Roll.
  3. ^ AFL Tables.
  4. ^ Holmesby & Main (2007).
  5. ^ australianfootball.com.

References