Mick Grace

Mick Grace

Personal information
Birth	24 July 1874, Burnley, Victoria
Height and weight	?cm, 78 kg
Death	21 May 1912, Heidelberg
Playing career¹
Team(s)	Fitzroy (VFA) (1895–1896) ? games, ? goals Fitzroy (VFL) (1897–1900) 65 games, 55 goals Carlton (VFL) (1903–1907) 86 games, 133 goals Brighton (VFA) (1907) ? games, ? goals St Kilda (VFL) 16 games, 26 goals Victoria (representative) 4 games, ? goals
Coaching career¹
Team(s)	St Kilda (VFL) 19 games, 10 wins University (VFL) (1910) 18 games, 10 wins
¹ Statistics to end of 1910 season
Career highlights
Premierships: Fitzroy VFA – 1895 Fitzroy VFL – 1898, 1899 Carlton VFL – 1906, 1907 Champion of the Colony - 1899

Michael John Grace (24 July 1874 – 21 May 1912) was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Victorian Football Association (VFA).

Mick Grace was a follower/forward who started his career at the top level in the VFA in 1895 with Fitzroy, joining his older brother Jim. Grace was part of Fitzroy's premiership team in that season (although no Grand Final was played in the VFA at the time). In 1897, Fitzroy was one of the eight clubs to form the VFL as a breakaway competition from the VFA, and in 1898 and 1899, Grace was part of back-to-back VFL premierships with the Maroons. He was regarded as the best player on the ground in the 1898 Grand Final, and he is recorded by the AFL as the Champion of the Colony in 1899 (although it is believed that this title was retrospectively awarded during the 1950s).^[1] Grace was part of the Maroons' 1900 losing premiership side, then retired from playing.^[2]

In 1903, influential coach Jack Worrall persuaded Grace to return to the VFL for Carlton. Grace played for Carlton between 1903 and 1907. He won a further two VFL premierships with Carlton (in 1906 and 1907), and in 1906 he kicked 50 goals in a single season; the first VFL player ever to do so.

Grace retired from the VFL again halfway through the 1907 season, and was set to play for Brighton in the VFA for the remainder of the season, before Worrall convinced him to return to Carlton for the successful finals campaign.^[3]

Grace left Carlton again at the end of the 1907 season, and moved to St Kilda where he played 16 games in 1908.

Altogether throughout his career in Victoria, Grace won five premierships (three for Fitzroy and two for Carlton). Grace also played four state games for Victoria.^[4]

Grace had a brief coaching career, serving as St Kilda's coach in 1908 while playing, then coaching University in 1910, and later coaching in Sydney.

Grace died in 1912, aged 37, from tuberculosis at Heidelberg.

References

1. ^ Australian Football League, 1883-1923: The Glory Years, 1 May 2006, Retrieved 9th April 2011.
2. ^ Blueseum, Mick Grace, Retrieved 9th April 2011.
3. ^ Blueseum, Mick Grace, Retrieved 9th April 2011.
4. ^ Donald, C. Fitzroy: for the love of the jumper: 100 players who made the Lions roar, Retrieved 9th April 2011

External links

• Mick Grace at Blueseum

Preceded by Inaugural coach

University Football Club coach 1910

Succeeded by Gerald Brosnan

Persondata
Name	Grace, Mick
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	24 July 1874
Place of birth	Burnley, Victoria
Date of death	21 May 1912
Place of death	Heidelberg