Bert Gook

Bert Gook
Personal information
Full name	Albert Henry Gook
Date of birth	1914
Date of death	15 December 1964 (aged 50)
Place of death	Dianella, Western Australia
Original team(s)	South Perth (Band of Hope)
Height/Weight	178 cm / 70 kg[1]
Position(s)	Centre, full-forward
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1933–1940	Perth	148 (512)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
1934–1938	Western Australia	7 (20)
^1 Playing statistics correct to end of 1940 season.
Career highlights
Perth leading goalkicker 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937 1938, 1939 WANFL leading goalkicker 1939 Perth best and fairest 1940 Perth Team of the Century

Albert George "Bert" Gook (1914 – 15 December 1964) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Perth Football Club^[a] in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). Originally playing for South Perth in the Band of Hope Association,^[2] Gook made his debut for Perth in 1933. Playing either as a centreman or at full-forward, he become known as a goal-kicking specialist, leading the club's goalkicking from the 1934 season through to the 1939 season. Gook led the WANFL's goalkicking in 1939, kicking 102 goals from 18 games. This included hauls of 10 goals against Swan Districts^[3] and 16 goals against West Perth.^[4] Gook also represented the WANFL in seven interstate and carnival matches between 1934 and 1938, kicking 20 goals, including six against the VFL in 1938. In his final season, 1940, he took out Perth's best and fairest playing mainly as a centreman. In 1941, Gook suffered a fractured skull and leg in a motorcycle accident while riding pillion on Scarborough Road, with the motorcyclist, Alexander Brown Burton Stevens, being killed.^[5][6] A benefit match was held in October 1941 for Gook and another footballer, J. Hulme of Swan Districts, who had been injured in road accidents.^[7] He died in Dianella, a northern suburb of Perth, in December 1964, aged 50.^[8] In 1999, Gook was named at full-forward in Perth's Team of the Century.^[9]

Notes

• ^a The current Perth Football Club was known as the "Victoria Park Football Club" in the 1934 and 1935 WANFL seasons.

References

1. THE STATE TEAM. 23 PLAYERS CHOSEN. MATCHES AGAINST S.A." – The West Australian. Published Monday, 9 July 1934. Retrieved from Trove, 30 September 2011.
2. "Band of Hope Association" – The West Australian. Published Monday, 26 February 1934. Retrieved from Trove, 30 September 2011.
3. "PERTH WINS AGAIN. Ten Goals to Gook." – The West Australian. Published Monday, 22 May 1939. Retrieved from Trove, 30 September 2011.
4. "BERT GOOK'S ORGY OF GOAL-KICKING" – The Sunday Times. Both his season tally and his tally against West Perth are club records. Published Sunday, 30 April 1939. Retrieved from Trove, 30 September 2011.
5. "Injured footballer" – The Sunday Times. Published Sunday, 2 March 1941. Retrieved from Trove, 30 September 2011.
6. "MOTOR CYCLIST'S DEATH" – The West Australian. Published Friday, 16 May 1941. Retrieved from Trove, 30 September 2011.
7. FOOTBALL. Benefit match on Sunday" – The West Australian. Published Thursday, 16 October 1941. Retrieved from Trove, 30 September 2011.
8. ALBERT HENRY GOOK – Metropolitan Cemeteries Board. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
9. Perth Official 'Team of the Century' – FullPointsFooty. Retrieved 30 September 2011.