Charlie Sutton

Charlie Sutton (3 April 1924 – 5 June 2012) was an Australian rules footballer who represented Footscray in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He captained the Bulldogs to their first VFL premiership in 1954.

Charlie Sutton
Personal information
Full name	Charles Alfred George Sutton
Date of birth	(1924-04-03)3 April 1924
Place of birth	Rushworth, Victoria
Date of death	5 June 2012(2012-06-05) (aged 88)
Place of death	Footscray, Victoria
Original team(s)	Spotswood Citizens
Height	169 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	87 kg (192 lb)
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1942–1956	Footscray	173 (65)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
	Victoria	18 (12)
Coaching career3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1951–1957	Footscray	123 (72–50–2)
1967–1968	Footscray	038 0(9–29–0)
Total		162 (81–79–2)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1956. 3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1968.
Career highlights
Footscray premiership captain-coach 1954 Footscray Team of the Century Con Curtain trophy 1950 Footscray leading goalicker 1951 Footscray captain 1951–1956
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Recruited from Spotswood, Sutton was a tough, nuggety footballer who embodied the club's fighting spirit. He played as a rover and half forward, but it was as a back pocket player that he made his name. In 1950, he finished equal third in the Brownlow Medal count and won the Con Weickhardt Trophy (as it was then known) as the Bulldogs' best and fairest player that season.^[1]

He was captain-coach of the team from 1951 to 1955.

After his retirement as a player, Sutton coached Footscray from 1956 until 9 July 1957, when he was dismissed and replaced by Ted Whitten. Sutton later returned to coach Footscray in 1967 (replacing Ted Whitten) and 1968 (after which he resigned having decided that the ever-increasing demands of coaching clashed far too much with his business of running a hotel at Yarraville).

In 1978 Sutton took over the position of President of the Footscray Football Club when Dick Collinson resigned.^[2]

He has the Western Bulldogs best and fairest award, the Charles Sutton Medal, named in his honour.

In 1996 Sutton was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Sutton died in 2012 at the age of 88.^[3]