User:Pudgey/Sandbox/Bob Quinn

Robert Berriman "Bob" Quinn

(b. 9 April 1915) a former Australian rules footballer with Port Adelaide in the SANFL.

  • from Australian Football HoF book, p.109
Bob Quinn's career was interrupted by war service in which he was twice wounded. It is a measure of the amn's football ability that he won his first Magarey Medal before the war and the second, with his wounds still troubling him, in 1945.
Quinn arrived on the scene at Port Adelaide in 1933 and was seen as an outstanding prospect. He was fourth in the Magarey in 1936, just beaten in 1937 and broke through in 1939.
He was everything a rover should be, a great ball handler, skilled in working around the packs, an outstanding stab pass and a natural goal kicker. On top of this was a competative fearlessness that took him into the hardest affrays on the field, and the leadership that took him to captaincy and coaching. He coached the club to a premiership in 1939 and then went to war, serving at Tobruk and in the Pacific, and suffering wounds in the knee and in the arm. He won the 1945 Magarey by the colossal margin of eighteen votes, and was simultaneously captain and coach of Port Adelaide and South Australia. His team-mates still talk about his half-time address in the 1947 match against Victoria, so inspirational that it carried South Australia from a seven goal defecit at half time to a four goal lead with minutes still to play. A late burst by the Vics denied SA of a deserved victpry (stet). He retired in 1948.
On retirement from football Quinn became a successful publican.
  • from SANFL HoF
    • R B (Bob) QUINN
    • Inducted 2002
    • 239 games, 386 goals for Port Adelaide, 1934 - 1947, captain, 5 years
    • Member 3 premiership teams at Port Adelaide
    • Four time Port Adelaide best and fairest
    • Port Adelaide leading goal kicker, twice
    • Played 15 games for South Australia, captain 1945 - 1947
    • All Australian Captain
    • Dual Magarey Medallist 1938 and 1945
    • Coached Port Adelaide, 5 years including 1939 premiership
    • Member of the AFL Hall of Fame
  • from Fullpointsfooty
Bob Quinn (Port Adelaide)
The honour board at Alberton contains a greater number of illustrious names than most, but none more celebrated than that of Robert Berriman Quinn who was without doubt the most talented and highly renowned rover ever to don the famous black and white of the Port Adelaide Football Club. But for World War Two, in which he served with distinction for five years, Quinn's record might ultimately have rivalled even that of the most individually decorated Magpie of them all, Russell Ebert.
Voted Port Adelaide's best and fairest player four times and placed in the top three of the Magarey Medal count on four occasions (for two wins) it was nevertheless more in the intangible, unrecordable sphere that Quinn truly excelled. Never one to chase personal glory ahead of the needs of the team he epitomised the Port Adelaide philosophy even before it had been formally articulated by Fos Williams. Quinn made his league debut with the Magpies as an eighteen year old in 1933, and when he retired after the 1947 preliminary final he had played a total of 185 SANFL matches. He was also a fine player in the interstate sphere, representing South Australia 14 times, and kicking 27 goals.