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In
a brilliant senior career lasting more than 20 seasons William Truscott
proved himself a football artist of the highest order, and yet he grew up
playing rugby. It was not until his parents moved from Sydney to the
Western Australian goldfields that Truscott, then in his early teens, even
realised that Australian football existed. However, it was not long
before he proved himself a natural at the game and, after a solid
grounding with junior side Trafalgar, he fronted up with Mines Rovers in
the senior goldfields competition in 1906. At this time the standard
of football being played in the Kalgoorlie-Coolgardie region was the equal
of that almost anywhere in Australia, and in both 1908 and 1911 Truscott,
still playing with Mines Rovers, was selected to represent Western
Australia in the Melbourne and Adelaide
carnivals.
In 1913 Truscott, already
with a formidable reputation as an accomplished senior footballer, joined East
Fremantle, where he was to enjoy an illustrious 14 season career.
Although his loping stride
made him appear slow, Truscott actually moved over the ground as quickly
as most of his opponents, and once he gained possession of the ball he
invariably disposed of it - usually with either a drop kick or stab pass -
to telling effect. A member of 3 East Fremantle premiership sides,
'Nipper' Truscott also played in 7 losing grand finals, while for over a
decade his name was almost invariably one of the first to be penned in by
the Western Australian state selectors. All told, he played in no
fewer than 5 interstate carnivals,
creating an Australian record which still endures. His finest moment
came in 1921 when he skippered his
adopted state to its first interstate championship. |
