# Ian Shelton (footballer)

Ian Stanley "Bluey" Shelton (24 February 1940 – 17 March 2021), known throughout his career as "Bluey", due to his thatch of red hair, was an Australian rules footballer, who played with Essendon in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s.

## Family

The son of Stanley Charles Shelton (1903–1983) and Jean Shelton (died 1978), née Dickens, Ian was born on 24 February 1940. He married Margery Henrietta Elliot on 26 March 1966.
He is the nephew of John Thomas "Jack" Shelton (1905–1941), who played for St Kilda and South Melbourne, and the cousin of Bill Shelton, who played with Hawthorn.

### Ned Kelly

As a young lad of 7, his grandfather, Richard Shelton, was saved from drowning in swollen Hughes Creek, Avenel by a young Ned Kelly, aged 10.

## VFL Footballer

Recruited from the Avenel-Longwood Football Club, Shelton was a strong, courageous, and talented footballer, able to kick well with both feet, who played at centre half-back for Essendon for 91 games, in six seasons, kicking two goals.
       "Bluey" Shelton, [Essendon's] 1965 vice-captain, was a big, rugged, red-headed centre half back who would go through a brick wall if necessary to clear the ball from the opposing goals. (Mapleston, 1996, p.204)

### 1959

Shelton came to Essendon, as a centre half-back, from Avenel in 1959. There were a number of delays in him getting a clearance from Avenel and a permit play from the VFL was not granted until 20 May 1959. Consequently, he was not eligible to play his first match for Essendon until the (round 5) match against Geelong on 23 May 1959, when he was selected to replace the team's regular centre half-back, Jeff Gamble, who was injured and unable to play. Shelton was one of Essendon's best players in a team that (unexpectedly) beat Geelong by 30 points: 11.18 (84) to 7.12 (54).
All in all, in his first season with Essendon, he played in seven senior home-and-away games, all three finals, including the Grand Final, where he played at centre half-back, in Essendon's 37 point loss — 11.12 (78) to 17.13 (115) — earned three votes in the Brownlow medal, and won the award for Essendon's best first year player.

### 1962

In 1962, Shelton played representative football for Victoria in 1962: against Tasmania on 17 June, and against South Australia on 14 July, he played in Essendon's 1962 premiership team at centre half-back in a team that defeated Carlton by 32 points — 13.12 (90) to 8.19 (58) — and was runner-up, to John Birt, as Essendon's best and fairest player.

### 1964

He did not play for the entire 1964 season due to an extremely serious eye injury he suffered in November 1963, "necessitating serious operations and treatment" (Maplestone, 1966, p.198):
       "Ian Shelton is expected to leave the Eye and Ear Hospital tomorrow after an operation to his right eye. A fragment of steel lodged in Shelton's eye as he was watching a mechanic repair a tractor on his farm at Avenel, two weeks ago".
       "Although Essendon centre half-back Ian Shelton has little chance of playing this year [viz., 1964] because of an eye injury, he has been placed on Essendon's list 'to be considered when available'."

### 1965

Although only able to see out of one eye, he returned to Essendon in 1965, and was appointed the team's vice captain. He broke his hand early in the season, and was out for three games; and, later in the season, sustained a serious knee injury that kept him out of action for four matches. He finished his final season playing in 14 games; the last being his third Grand Final, and his second premiership team.
On the day of the 1965 Grand Final, with a severe shoulder injury (the severity of which had been kept secret from the public), Shelton was "in two minds [before the match] as to whether to play because he didn't want to let the team down" by under-performing; however, "he was persuaded half an hour before the game by skipper Ken Fraser and the club doctor to take the field".

### 1966

He was released by Essendon in 1966, because they could not come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement for him to commute between Avenel and Essendon.

### 1975

In 1975, he was the official runner for the Essendon Football Club.

## Country Football
### Avenel-Longwood

In 1958 he was playing with the Avenel-Longwood Football Club.

### Seymour

He was captain-coach of the Seymour Football Club, in the Waranga North East Football League (WNEFL), from 1966 to 1969. He was coach of the Seymour (Goulburn Valley Football League) premiership team in 1982.

### Avenel-Longwood

He was captain-coach of the Avenel-Longwood Football Club in 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1974, and was the club's best and fairest in 1971 and 1972.

## Awards

* 1959: Essendon Football Club — Best First-Year Player.
* 1962: Essendon Football Club — Outstanding Services Award.
* 1997: Essendon Football Club — One of Essendon's "Top 60 Players" (of a total of 1,001 potential candidates) from which the 25 members of the "Essendon Team of the Century" were chosen.
* 2005: Essendon Football Club — Life Membership.
* 2012: Seymour Football Club — Centre Half-Back in Seymour's "Team of the Century".
* 2012: Seymour Football Club — Coach of Seymour's "Team of the Century".
* 2016: Essendon Football Club — Centre Half-Back in Essendon's "Team of the Country".
* 2019: Essendon Football Club — Hall of Fame.

## Footnotes

* ↑ "Vale Ian 'Bluey' Shelton". www.essendonfc.com.au. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
* ↑ Weddings: Shelton—Dickens, Table Talk, (Thursday, 6 April 1933), p.44.
* ↑ "Such is life for the legend that is Ned Kelly". The Age. 11 December 2004.
* ↑ Rennie, A. & Szego, J., "Ned Kelly saved our drowning dad ... the softer side of old bucket head", Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 2001. Note: article includes a photograph of Ian's grandfather aged in his 90s, and his uncle, Alfred "Briton" Shelton (born 1914), the youngest of Richard Shelton's twelve children.
* ↑ "Conway, S., "Growing up country", essendonfc.com.au, 11 April 2016". Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
* ↑ Ian Bluey Shelton on YouTube.
* ↑ Welch, B., "Guy, Ross Expect to be Available", The Age, (Thursday, 21 May 1959 ), p.24.
* ↑ Meeking, M., "One Goal Altered Essendon's Game", The Age, (Monday, 25 May 1959), p.20.
* ↑ "AFL Tables - 1959 Brownlow Medal". afltables.com.
* ↑ Maplestone (1996), p.383: Maplestone also notes (p.186) that Shelton won this best first year player, having played in only 10 games, from three other highly talented first year players: winger Barry Capuano (10 senior games in 1959; 118 career games in 8 seasons), ruckman Brian Sampson (18 senior games in 1959; 100 career games in 8 seasons), and utility player David Shaw (19 games in 1959; 177 career games in 10 seasons).
* ↑ BTV: Bluey Shelton Part One on YouTube.
* ↑ BTV: Bluey Shelton Part Two on YouTube.
* ↑ BTV: Bluey Shelton Part Three on YouTube.
* ↑ "The Age - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
* ↑ Beames, P., "Ron Branton in Victoria Side", The Age, (Monday, 9 July 1962), p.18; Carter, R., "Comfortable Win to Victoria over S.A.", The Age, (Monday, 16 July 1962), p.20.
* ↑ Maplestone (1966), p.370.
* ↑ "The Age - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
* ↑ Conway (2006).
* ↑ Hobbs, G., "Little Hope", The Age, (29 November 1963), p.
* ↑ Carter, R., "Silvagni Blues' New Leader", The Age, (Monday, 13 April 1964), p.30; see also "V.F.L. Final Training Lists: Essendon", The Age, (Monday, 13 April 1964), p.30.
* ↑ "The Age - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
* ↑ Carter, R., "Clegg to lose Post as Selector", The Age, (Thursday, 25 March 1965), p.28.
* ↑ "Monocle for 'Bluey'?", The Age, (Wednesday, 17 February 1965), p.26.
* ↑ "The Age - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
* ↑ "The Age - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
* ↑ "Essendon set to win VFL grand final from St Kilda". Canberra Times. 25 September 1965 – via Trove.
* ↑ Mapleston (1996), p.203.
* ↑ "The Age - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.au.
* ↑ Club Newsletter — July 2016: Reunion, Seymour Football Netball Club Inc., pp.1-2.
* ↑ "From the Archives: October 18, 1982: Seymour's big night, The Shepparton News, 17 October 2017". Archived from the original on 9 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
* ↑ "First 18 Best Fairest - Avenel Football Club". GameDay.
* ↑ Ian Shelton: Profile, essendonfc.com.au;Champions of Essendon Profiles, essendonfc.com.au; What is Champions of Essendon?, essendonfc.com.au; Champions of Essendon, essendonfc.com.au.
* ↑ "Six new life members inducted". essendonfc.com.au. 20 December 2005.
* 1 2 Seymour Football Club: Team of the Century, Seymour Football Netball Club; Team of the Century, Seymour Football Netball Club.
* ↑ "Conway, S., "Team of the Country", essendonfc.com.au, 15 April 2016". Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
* ↑ "Vale Ian 'Bluey' Shelton". www.essendonfc.com.au. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2025.