Bert Deacon

Bert Deacon
Personal information
Full name	Bertrand John Deacon
Date of birth	9 November 1922
Place of birth	Preston, Victoria
Date of death	3 January 1974 (aged 51)
Place of death	Balnarring, Victoria
Original team(s)	Preston
Height/Weight	180 cm / 79 kg
Position(s)	Defender
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1942–1951	Carlton	106 (7)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1951 season.

Bert Deacon (8 November 1922 – 3 January 1974) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Carlton in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He is remembered for being Carlton's first ever Brownlow Medal winner.

A centre half back, Deacon began his league career in 1942. He was a premiership player for Carlton in 1945 (after acting as captain-coach of an Army stores team that won all ten games in a services competition in Darwin) and 1947, the latter in a year which he won both a Brownlow Medal and shared Carlton's best and fairest medal with his captain Ern Henfry. The previous season Deacon had finished fourth in the Brownlow Medal count but this time around finished on top, thus becoming Carlton's inaugural winner of the award.

Deacon left Carlton after the 1951 season and became captain-coach for Preston in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), the club where he had played for prior to being recruited by Carlton. He later served as Carlton vice-president and club secretary.^[1]

He is the centre half back in Carlton's official 'Team of the Century'.

Off the field, Deacon worked for many years for long-serving VFL and Carlton president Sir Kenneth Luke.^[2] Bertram Deacon died of a heart attack on 3 January 1974 while on holiday at Balnarring. Deacon was just 51 years of age and died despite the desperate efforts of his Preston team-mate, Pat Foley to revive him.

References

1. "Life of Bert Deacon". Retrieved 15 May 2011.
2. Preston Football Club Annual Report, 1952

External links

• Bert Deacon's statistics from AFL Tables
• Bert Deacon at Blueseum