Remembering one of Avenel's finest footballers

Geoff sat down with Avenel’s William O'Connor in 2016 to discuss his life and give plenty of commentary about old school football and the modern game.

“I was born in Trafalgar on June 1930, one of four children to George and Margaret Baker and I grew up in Ballarat and Cheltenham,” Geoff said.

“I met my wife, Ellen, when my mate and I were just a couple of young hoons hanging around Rye. We saw these two girls walking along the street, so we pulled over and asked them if there is a dance in town tonight.

“They said yes, down at Tootgarook. I asked if they were going, and they said yes. I danced the whole night with Ellen, and I told my mate that she was the girl I’m going to marry, which we did in 1954.

“Despite everything I’ve done on the football field, my wife and I raising four children that have never been in any sort of trouble is my proudest achievement.”

A promising young footballer, Geoff played for Cheltenham in the Federal League and won the under-18 best-and-fairest at 13 years old.

“When I moved to open-age football a mate and I went fruit picking and that led us to Tasmania. We headed for Burnie and played football there for two years including a premiership,” Geoff said.

“I regret badly injuring my knee while in Tasmania. I went for a mark and the pack came down on top of me and my knee was very badly twisted.

“I missed most of my second year at Burnie. I lost a lot of pace and couldn’t turn. I then went to Moorabbin and played in their first game in the VFA, and for the following four years.

“Just about all the VFL clubs came to see me with Carlton coming three or four times. I trained with Melbourne about 1946, but couldn’t continue in the VFL because of the knee injury.”

Geoff continued playing for Moorabbin, but slowly began to turn his attention to coaching, which eventually brought him to Avenel in 1955.

“When I started coaching at Avenel, I found an unsuccessful club that hadn’t won a game for years, but had some very capable players,” he said.

“I tried to teach them how to win games. I caused an upset with the players because I was trying to teach the guys the benefit of handball.

“I explained to them situations in the game, how to get the ball out, what to do with the ball when you get it and what the other players should be doing.

“It worked because from that moment we won 13 games straight and made the finals the first year.”

Geoff’s love of football rubbed off on his son, Leon, who played 86 games and scored 70 goals for Essendon.

“I was very happy when he went to Essendon because they were well established, very successful and very well behaved,” he said.

“He was 27 when he went to Essendon and had a mature strong body. He was ready to go and had a wonderful first year polling 13 votes in the Brownlow. In his second year he polled nine Brownlow votes.

“Another Essendon player I dealt with a bit was Ian “Bluey” Shelton. When I arrived at Avenel, Bluey was about 14 and was a boundary umpire. We brought him into the seniors in 1957.

“Shelton had a real value in his directness at the ball and strength. He could mark well and could kick well on either foot.

“In 1958 I coached Nagambie in the GVFL. Bluey was centre half-back for Avenel. The next year he was in the same position for Essendon.”

Geoff said modern AFL was very different to what he experienced as a player and coach.

“It’s so different to what it was. Some of the things they do now are just rubbish. Before long soccer will be the game here because AFL is losing its value and its connection with the people,” he said.

“It was better when people stayed in their positions. There were good one-on-one contests. Now they are much fitter, and the teams move in waves.

“There are too many players around the ball which leads to scrummages and then repeated ball-ups. The only good thing about today’s football is the thuggery has been stamped out.”