Neville Huggins


Neville Huggins was an Australian rules footballer who played for Fitzroy and North Melbourne in the Victorian Football League.
Huggins started his football career in the Ovens and Murray League where he took the field for Rutherglen. He then spent some time at Williamstown before being signed by Fitzroy for the 1929 VFL season. His stint at Fitzroy wasn't successful, ending after just four matches owing to a dispute with the committee. Huggins, a ruck-rover, was also a policeman by profession.
The North Melbourne team of the early 1930s was particularly weak and in his initial season with the club he didn't experience a win. It wasn't until 1932 that he played in a winning side, ending a streak of 22 consecutive losses, which stretched back to his time at Fitztoy.
Having left the VFL for good, Huggins returned to Williamstown, where he was appointed captain-coach and said to be the highest paid one in the country. A dual best and fairest winner, he also took out the Recorder Cup in 1937.
Huggins coached Shepparton Football Club in their 1940 Goulburn Valley Football Association grand final loss to Lemnos.
Huggins was known to be playing cricket for Shepparton Cricket Club in the 1939/40 season.
Huggins was vice captain of the Border United FC that played in the Murray Valley Patriotic Football League in 1944.
Huggins was captain / coach of the South Corowa Football Club in the Coreen & District Football League in 1947.