Magpies to honour past champion

• Pictured is Athol Webb at full stretch at the MCG for Melbourne in the Demons’ VFL glory days.  

June 14, 2023

By Peter Fish

In 2022 Les Magrath and his wife from The Rock, a town in NSW, called into the Scottsdale Football Club hoping to view a photographic copy of Athol Webb, a two-time VFL premiership player and a former player at Scottsdale.

Magrath and Webb are good friends.

Unfortunately the club was not able to satisfy Les's wish as there was no existing photo of Webb. 

Efforts by the club to source one from the Melbourne Football Club, where Webb made a name for himself, were not successful.

But last week Les Magrath sent a photograph that is part of Webb's personal collection, and this will now be displayed in the Magpies’ clubrooms accompanied by a citation.

Athol Webb was born in Ringarooma in 1935 and was always destined for stardom, from when he was named the best and fairest at the national schoolboys titles in Adelaide in 1949, despite the Tasmanian team he captained failing to win a game.

Webb made his debut at Scottsdale as a 15-year-old. He went on to win the club’s senior best and fairest award in 1953 at just 17 years of age and he remains the youngest player to win the club’s most prestigious award.

He was recruited by the Melbourne Football Club and played in the 1956 and 1957 premiership teams.

In 1960 he returned to Tasmania and coached New Norfolk from 1960-61, and East Launceston in 1962-63. He was then appointed as coach of Western Suburbs in NSW from 1964-65, before going on to coach The Rock Yerong Creek Football Club from 1967 to 1969 in the Farrer Football League, where he stayed on for six more years as a player.

Webb still resides at The Rock. He remains the most decorated player to have departed the Scottsdale Football Club, with two VFL premierships to his name.