Joe Slater


Joseph Henry Slater was an Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong in the Victorian Football League.

Family

The son of sharebroker Henry Slater, and Diana Slater, née Reynolds, Joseph Henry Slater was born in Ballarat, Victoria, on 29 November 1888. He was engaged to Nellie Jean Wigley ; she never married, and she died in Elsternwick, Victoria on 22 April 1943.

Education

He was educated at Geelong College, where he was an outstanding cricketer, athlete, and footballer.

Football

A non-smoker and non-drinker, and an accomplished sprinter, Slater usually played as a defender, with stints in the midfield and up forward. An all round sportsman Slater made 101 for Geelong 'B' against Kardinia in the First Eleven match in the G.C.A. season 1909/10.
He was named as a half back flanker in Geelong's official 'Team of the Century'. Good overhead, Slater twice represented Victoria at interstate football.
On 15 June 1912 Slater kicked a drop kick goal at Richmond's Punt Road Oval from the centre; measured at 85 yards.
Due to work commitments in Melbourne in 1913 Slater intended to play with VFL team University; however, he played several matches with Hawthorn in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association ; and, when playing against Collingwood District on 3 May 1913, he dislocated his collar bone, and refused to leave the ground so his team wouldn't be one man short. Slater eventually returned to Geelong that year.
Former League Champion of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries Peter Burns wrote of Slater in 1940:

Military Service

He left football at the outbreak of World War I in order to enlist, He was Captain of the 22nd Battalion; and he lost his life during the conflict in Bullecourt, France.
According to Main and Allen :

Footnotes