BIO
Debut: v West-Glenelg (Adelaide) 16th May 1942
Finale: v Port-Torrens (Adelaide) 30th September 1944
Wartime competition 1942 - 1944
Norwood-North games : 27
Norwood-North goals : 2
Wartime Competition 1942 - 1944
Norwood-North games : 27
Norwood-North goals : 2
A North Adelaide stalwart with a Norwood link, Gordon Hogan proved to be the secret weapon which in 1944 gave him and Norwood-North their second successive premiership in the wartime competition.
His father, Keith, played one league game with Norwood in 1913, five years before Gordon was born. Gordon grew up in Kilburn. His long stint with North Adelaide, where he played 59 games and kicked 15 goals between 1937 and 1946, was interrupted by three seasons with Norwood-North from 1942 to 1944.
Gordon was a reliable half-back for Norwood-North. He began the 1943 season in charge of training before Jack Smith took over as coach in place of Perc McCallum, who had joined the air force. Norwood-North finished the season strongly and challenged the hot favourite, Port-Torrens, in a gripping grand final before 36,400 spectators. At three-quarter time each side had scored 7.9, but Norwood-North then slammed on 5.1 to three points for a 21-point victory, 12.10 to 8.13. Gordon had a relatively quiet day, with seven kicks, but greater things were to come in his last game with Norwood-North.
In 1944 Gordon moved to Port Lincoln, where he worked and played his football. On the Thursday before the grand final he was in Adelaide and went out to watch Norwood-North train – and found himself selected in the back pocket for the big match with Port-Torrens some 46 hours away. Again, Norwood-North was the underdog. It was a gruelling affair before a crowd of nearly 30,000. Barely a goal separated the teams for most of the match. Rain fell at half-time. Norwood-North led by one point at three-quarter time and hung on to beat an inaccurate opponent by six points, 9.7 to 7.13.
The Advertiser football writer ‘Rover’ said: “The great defence, particularly in the last half of Hogan, Martin, McFarlane, Holliday and Harby was a big factor in the Norwood-North success. Hogan’s enlistment in the side was a lucky break for Norwood-North. No man handled the ball more safely or was generally more reliable than he.”
Born on 5 December 1918, Gordon Hogan died on 25 October 1962.
P. Robins, G. Adams January 2025