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Cliff Rankin

Australian rules footballer

Summary

Australian rules footballer

Field	Value
name	Cliff Rankin
image	CliffRankin.png
image_size	200
fullname	Clifford Egerton Laure Rankin
birth_date	4 December 1896
birth_place	Geelong, Victoria
death_date
death_place	Geelong, Victoria
originalteam	Chilwell
height	175 cm
weight	69 kg
position	Forward
statsend	1928
years1	1915, 1919–1928
club1	Geelong
games_goals1	153 (399)
coachyears1	1925–1927
coachclub1	Geelong
coachgames_wins1	57 (45–12–0)
careerhighlights	*Geelong captain-coach 1925–1927

14-time state representative
1925 Geelong premiership captain-coach
1921 VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal
Four-time Geelong Leading Goalkicker (1920–1923)
Geelong Team of the Century (Emergency)

Cliff Rankin (4 December 1896 – 12 February 1975) was an Australian rules footballer, who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1915 to 1928.

Football career

Nicknamed "Ticker", his father Teddy and brother Bert both played football for Geelong as well as a number of other members of the Rankin family.

Despite making his debut in 1915, Rankin did not play a full season until 1920 due to World War I, when he served as a gunner in France. While with the army he even represented the Australian Imperial Force in the rival code of rugby, playing as the fullback of the Australian team, which defeated the New Zealand All Blacks.

After the war, Rankin kicked 48 goals in 1920 to finish the season as Geelong's top goal-kicker. The following season he again topped their goal-kicking with 63 goals, which set a then club record for most ever goals in a season. It was also the highest tally by any player in the league that year for the home-and-away season and included a bag of ten goals against Fitzroy. In total, Rankin won Geelong's leading goal-kicker award on four separate occasions. During a game in the 1924 season, as Cliff Rankin was shooting for goal, Arthur Hando of South Melbourne was seen shaking the posts in order to increase the chances of the ball hitting the goal post, an action for which Hando was subsequently censured by the league.

Rankin captained-coached Geelong from 1925 until 1927, steering them to 1925 premiership in his first year in charge. He led from the front in the Grand Final with five goals.

A regular Victorian interstate representative, Rankin appeared in 14 games for his state, kicking 30 goals. He was captain of the state team in 1926. In that year, he controversially criticised the spiteful play of the Western Australian team.

Rankin was named as an emergency in Geelong's official 'Team of the Century'.

Personal life

Rankin married Evelyn Beckham in 1921. He worked as a gasfitter. His great-grandson, Gary O'Donnell, played for the Essendon Football Club in the 1990s.

Footnotes

References

''Geelong Advertiser'', 3 August 1923, p. 6; ''Table Talk'', 6 October 1927, p. 15. J. Ross (ed.), ''100 Years of Australian Football'', Ringwood, 1996, p. 120.
J. Ross (ed.), ''100 Years of Australian Football'', Ringwood, 1996, p. 114.
''The Daily News'', 5 August 1926, p. 4.
Callander, S. "80 years of Grand Final Celebrations", ''AFL Grand Final Record'', Australian Football League:Melbourne. 2005, p. 18.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1896-births 1975-deaths australian-rules-footballers-from-geelong australian-rules-footballers:-place-kick-exponents geelong-football-club-players geelong-football-club-premiership-players geelong-football-club-captains geelong-football-club-coaches geelong-football-club-premiership-coaches vfl-leading-goalkicker-medal-winners chilwell-football-club-players rankin-family-(geelong) australian-military-personnel-of-world-war-i australian-army-soldiers vfl/afl-premiership-players vfl/afl-premiership-coaches 20th-century-australian-sportsmen

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