Charlie Colgan

Australian rules footballer

Charlie Colgan
Personal information
Full name	Charles Edward Colgan
Date of birth	(1878-02-09)9 February 1878
Place of birth	Emerald Hill (now known as South Melbourne), Victoria
Date of death	25 July 1935(1935-07-25) (aged 57)
Place of death	South Melbourne, Victoria
Original team(s)	South Park
Playing career¹
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1898–1901	South Melbourne	37 (43)
¹ Playing statistics correct to the end of 1901.
Career highlights
2x South Melbourne leading goalkicker: (1898, 1899)
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Charles Edward Colgan (9 February 1878 – 25 July 1935) was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL).^[1]

Family

The youngest of the seven children of the tailor Patrick Colgan (1833-1911),^[2] and Margaret Colgan, née Dwyer (1841-1911),^[3]^[4] Charles Edward Colgan was born at Emerald Hill (now known as South Melbourne) on 9 February 1878.^[5]

He married Mary Veronica Gilchrist (1882–1948) in 1903.^[6]^[7] They had three children; one of whom, a daughter (Veronica Margaret), died aged 3 months.^[8]

Football

External image
South Melbourne Football Team Colgan is the player standing at the extreme left of the third row.^[9]

South Melbourne (VFL)

Originally with the West Melbourne football club,^[10] he was recruited from the local South Park Football Club on the basis of his performance in a (South Park) pre-season match.^[11]^[12] Colgan made his debut for South Melbourne against Carlton, at Princes Park, on 14 May 1898.

1899 team of "champions"

At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for The Argus, Reginald Wilmot ("Old Boy"), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:

Backs: Maurie Collins (Essendon), Bill Proudfoot (Collingwood), Peter Burns (Geelong).
Halfbacks: Pat Hickey (Fitzroy), George Davidson (South Melbourne), Alf Wood (Melbourne).
Centres: Fred Leach (Collingwood), Firth McCallum (Geelong), Harry Wright (Essendon).
Wings: Charlie Pannam (Collingwood), Eddie Drohan (Fitzroy), Herb Howson (South Melbourne).
Forwards: Bill Jackson (Essendon), Eddy James (Geelong), Charlie Colgan (South Melbourne).
Ruck: Mick Pleass (South Melbourne), Frank Hailwood (Collingwood), Joe McShane (Geelong).
Rovers: Dick Condon (Collingwood), Bill McSpeerin (Fitzroy), Teddy Rankin (Geelong).

From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — Wilmot selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season.^[13]

South Melbourne Juniors (VJFA)

In May 1901 he was cleared from South Melbourne to South Melbourne Juniors in the Victorian Junior Football Association.^[14] He played with the Juniors for five seasons, and in 1905 he was selected (as vice-captain) in a combined VJFA team to play against a combined Ballarat Juniors team.^[15]

Death

He died of pneumonia at his residence in South Melbourne on 25 July 1935.^[16]^[11]

Notes

^ Holmesby & Main (2014), p. 164.
^ Deaths: Colgan, The Age, (Wednesday, 8 November 1911), p. 1.
^ Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Marriages Registration no.1740/1864.
^ Deaths: Colgan, The Age, (Wednesday, 26 April 1911), p. 1.
^ Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Births Registration no.8798/1878.
^ Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Marriages Registration no.2780/1903.
^ Deaths: Colgan, The Age, (Saturday, 31 July 1948), p.2.
^ Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Deaths Registration no.14528/1903.
^ South Melbourne Football Team, Melbourne Punch, (Thursday, 7 September 1899), p. 248.
^ Presentation of Prizes: West Melbourne F.C., The North Melbourne Gazette, (Friday, 13 May 1898), p. 2.
^ ^a ^b Death of "Charlie" Colgan: South's Leading Forward of the Late 90's, The (Emerald Hill) Record, (Saturday, 27 July 1935), p. 4.
^ Brevities and Comments, The (Emerald Hill) Record, (Saturday, 16 April 1898), p. 3.
^ 'Old Boy', "Football: A Review of the Season", (Monday, 18 September 1899), p. 6.
^ Football, The Age, (Wednesday, 22 May 1901), p.5.
^ Junior Football Association, The Age, (Thursday, 22 June 1905), p. 8.
^ Deaths: Colgan, The Age, (Friday, 26 July 1935), p. 1.

References

Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2014). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (10th ed.). Seaford, Victoria: BAS Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921496-32-5.