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Allan Thomas Hird Sr. (11 August 1918 – 16 May 2007) was an Australian rules football player, coach and executive in the Victorian Football League (now AFL).

VFL playing career

Recruited from Williamstown, Hird joined the Hawthorn Football Club where he made his debut in 1938. He played 14 games for the club before moving to Essendon in 1940. It was at the Bombers he enjoyed his greatest success, playing 102 games from 1940 to 1945 as a pacy flanker, and being a part of the 1942 premiership team.

VFL coaching career

Hird later spent two years with the St Kilda Football Club as captain-coach, leaving at the end of 1947. After returning to Essendon, Hird was captain-coach of the Essendon Seconds (Reserves) team from 1948 to 1952 and non-playing coach from 1953 to 1954, before retiring from all forms of playing. In his seven years as captain-coach of the Seconds, the team won the premiership twice, in 1950 and 1952 (Hird's last match), and was runner-up three times.

All but one of the 20 players, Allan Taylor, in Hird's highly talented 1952 Essendon Seconds Premiership team that beat Collingwood Seconds 7.14 (56) to 4.5 (29) had either already played for the Essendon Firsts or would go on to do so in the future. Excluding the senior games that some, such as Hird, had already played (or would go on to play) with other VFL clubs, the members of the Essendon 1952 Seconds Premiership Team played an aggregate total of 1072 senior games for Essendon Firsts.

Post-playing career

Hird joined Essendon's club committee in 1955–1958 and became treasurer for the 1959 and 1960 seasons. He became vice-president in 1965, before holding the position as president of the club from 1969 to 1975.

The Allan T. Hird Stand was named in his honour at Windy Hill in Essendon, and he was an inaugural inductee into the club's Hall of Fame in 1996, given Legend status the same year.

Hird was the father of Allan Hird Jr., who also had a brief playing career with Essendon. His grandson is former Essendon captain and coach James Hird.

Footnotes

1. WW2 Nominal Roll: Hird, Allan Thomas
2. Allan Taylor, who grew up in Strathmore, Victoria, was the older brother of Bob Taylor. He played with the Essendon Second XVIII for several seasons, retiring from football in 1953. He was selected on an extended bench for one First XVIII match in 1952, but was not one of the two reserves used on the Saturday. He trained as a metallurgist at RMIT, and went on to work at General Motors-Holden (GMH) in 1956, and was soon transferred to its Data Processing Department, from which he retired in 1987. (see: Monthly Profile: Allan Taylor, Probus (Beaumaris) Newsletter, No.234, (June 2009), p.2.

References

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

External links

• Allan Hird Sr.'s playing statistics from AFL Tables

• St Kilda Football Club coaches
• 1918 births
• 2007 deaths
• Essendon Football Club players
• Essendon Football Club premiership players
• Hawthorn Football Club players
• St Kilda Football Club players
• Williamstown Football Club players
• Essendon Football Club administrators
• Australian rules footballers from Bendigo
• VFL/AFL premiership players