BIO

Wartime competition 1942
Norwood-North games: 6
Norwood-North goals: 0

Ron Koch was a fleet-footed wingman for Norwood and a prominent professional runner.  He was placed four times in the Bay Sheffield and in 1939 won a heat of the Stawell Gift two yards inside even time.

Ron was born at Sedan to Friedrich Koch and his wife Louisa, née Phelps, on 8 October 1915 (army records say 1916).  He was based at Appila when recruited by Norwood.  In addition to his 45 league games and six for Norwood-North, he played 20 association matches for Norwood in 1937 and from 1939 to 1941.  Premierships evaded him, even though Norwood finished top at league level in 1941 and in the association from 1937 to 1939.
 
Ron was domiciled at St Peters when he enlisted for World War II army service as a gunner on 9 August 1940.

In 1948, married to Dorothy and working as a steward in Brisbane, he had one last crack at a premiership when he joined Windsor, which had won the flag the previous year.  Ron’s heady play helped Windsor enter the grand final with a 16-point win over Mayne, but Kedron proved too strong a week later, taking the crown 9.16 to 3.11.

Ron was a member of the Australian Rules relay team in a post-season charity day race between the football codes.  Rugby League won the day despite the efforts of Ron and his teammate Ken Trewick, a Queensland carnival footballer who would amass 379 games with Windsor and establish a taxi business on the strength of his ‘dark horse’ victory in the 1950 Stawell Gift. 

Ron Koch died at Elizabeth in 1994 and is buried at Enfield Memorial Park.