page_title: Gordon Coventry
section_title: Syd
hierarchical_section_title: Gordon Coventry / Family / Brothers / Syd
caption_attribution_description: English: The Coventrys of Collingwood, caricature drawing, by Australian cartoonist Len Reynolds.
context_page_description: Gordon Richard James Coventry was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League.
  Accorded "Legend" status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Coventry was the first player to play 300 VFL games, the first to kick 100 goals in a VFL season, the only player ever to head the league's goal-kicking list in five consecutive seasons, and the first to player to kick 1000 VFL goals, with his career total of 1299 VFL goals serving as a VFL/AFL competition record for over 60 seasons.
  "He is often considered by fans and journalists to be amongst the greatest forward-line players of all time." — AFL Legends.com.
context_section_description: Another older brother, Sydney Andrew Coventry (1899-1976), also played for Collingwood at the same time as Gordon.
  While working as a miner at Queenstown, Tasmania, and playing football for the Miners' Football Team (as its captain), in Gormanston, Tasmania in 1920, Syd was approached by St Kilda and invited to play for them in 1921. Syd moved to Victoria, and influenced by Gordon, began training with Collingwood (rather than St Kilda) in the 1921 pre-season; however, in May 1921, "an application by S,A, Coventry for transfer from Miners' (Tasmania) to Collingwood was refused [by the Victorian Football League Permit Committee]".
  Having served 12 months out of football, Syd was cleared "from Tasmania to Collingwood" on 26 April 1922. He went on play in 227 VFL games for Collingwood (1922-1934) and 27 representative games for the VFL (1922-1934), captain Collingwood for 144 games (1927-1934), win the Brownlow Medal in 1927, and serve for three years as the non-playing coach of Footscray (1935-1937), before returning to Collingwood as an administrator, serving as its vice-president for 11 years (1939-1949), its president for 13 years (1950-1962), and its patron from 1963 until his death in 1976.
caption:           "The Coventrys of Collingwood",
    Len Reynolds, Table Talk, 9 October 1930.[18]
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