George Doig - Football Career

Football Career

In 1933, he was promoted to the League team at East Fremantle. In his first game he kicked 9 goals. For the season he kicked 106 goals, the first person in the West Australian Football League to kick more than 100 goals in a season at League level.

The following year he kicked 152 goals, which was an Australian record until 1953, when Bernie Naylor, from the South Fremantle Football Club kicked 167 goals (including finals matches). In the 1934 season George kicked 19 goals, 3 behinds in one match (then an Australian record) followed by 13 goals, 4 behinds in the following match.

In 1935, George kicked 113 goals, followed by

108 goals in 1936,

144 goals in 1937,

100 goals in 1938,

106 goals in 1939,

108 goals in 1940 and

146 goals in 1941.

Due to the Second World War, 1941 practically marked his retirement from football. He had represented Western Australia on 14 occasions and kicked 62 goals in State matches. In 1945, at the request of the Committee, George returned to play 6 games and help East Fremantle win the Premiership for that year.

During his career he played in 8 Grand Finals and kicked 10 or more goals on 14 occasions. He never missed scoring a goal in any match he played.

In 1938 the East Fremantle Football Club played a match in Sydney against the New South Wales State team. A newspaper report on the match referred to George Doig as "the Don Bradman of WANFL football" as he had by then achieved more than 100 goals in six consecutive seasons.

George kicked an aggregate of 1083 goals in his nine consecutive seasons from 1933 at the East Fremantle Football Club. This represents an incredible 120 goals per season and 5.46 goals per game. In 1945, after an absence from the game for three years due to the Second World War he returned to play a few more games, kicking a further 28 goals, to bring his career aggregate to 1111 goals.

Fremantle's Best and Fairest award, the Doig Medal, is named for the Doig family, 17 of which have played football at senior level in Western Australia over three generations. A function room at Subiaco Oval has been named the Doig Room in recognition of the family's influence on West Australian football. He is a member of the West Australian Football Hall of Fame and has legend status.

Doig married Margaret Jean Mossman on Saturday, 21 August 1937, at the Old Scots Church in Fremantle. He and his brother, Charlie Doig, who acted as best man, had both played for East Fremantle against Swan Districts at Fremantle Oval on the same day as the wedding, with George kicking four goals in a 27-point loss.