View source for Les Foote

{{short description|Australian rules footballer, born 1924}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox AFL biography
| name = Les Foote
| image = Les_Foote_North_Melbourne_Annual_Report_1950.jpeg
| alt = 
| caption = 
| fullname = Leslie Roy Foote
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|8|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = 
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2006|4|11|1924|8|20}}
| death_place = [[Victoria, Australia]]
| originalteam = North Melbourne Colts
| height = 182&nbsp;cm
| weight = 85&nbsp;kg
| position = 
| statsend = 1955
| coachstatsend = 1955
| repstatsend = 1951
| years1 = 1941–1951
| club1 = [[North Melbourne Football Club|North Melbourne]]
| games_goals1 = 134 (105)
| years2 = 1954–1955
| club2 = [[St Kilda Football Club|St Kilda]]
| games_goals2 = 33 (4)
| years3 = 1957–1958
| club3 =  [[Northern Bullants]]
| games_goals3 = 26 (22)
| games_goalstotal = 183 (131)
| sooteam1 = [[Victoria Australian rules football team|Victoria]]
| sooyears1 = 1946–1951
| coachyears1 = 1954–1955
| coachclub1 = [[St Kilda Football Club|St Kilda]]
| coachgames_wins1 = 36 (5–30–1)
| careerhighlights = *[[Syd Barker Medal|North Melbourne best & fairest]]: 1945, 1949–1950
*[[List of North Melbourne Football Club captains|North Melbourne captain]]: 1949–1951
*[[Trevor Barker Medal|St Kilda best & fairest]]: 1954 
*[[Australian Football Hall of Fame]] inductee
}}

'''Leslie Roy Foote''' (20 August 1924 – 11 April 2006) was an [[Australian rules football]]er in the [[Australian Football League|Victorian Football League]].

==Football career==
A local lad, and recruited from the North Melbourne Colts, Foote played his first match with the [[North Melbourne Football Club]] in 1941 at just 16 years of age.

He was able to kick equally well with both feet, and his ability to play close to the ground meant that he was not only a brilliant ball player but was also had an outstanding ability to control the ball in packs. He was an excellent mark.

He was famous for his baulking and dodging skills (skills which he claimed to have honed "by walking through the crowded city footpaths, dodging and weaving through the oncoming people"<ref>Ross, 1996, p.212. This "legend" was confirmed as fact by [[John Dugdale (footballer)|John Dugdale]] when interviewed by Paul Sheahan in 2006 (Sheahan, 2006).</ref>) and his courageous style of play.

He would torment his opponents by running straight towards them, holding the ball out to them – and, then, doing a blind turn around them, and continuing on his way.

His favourite ploy was, having taken a mark, to walk back and pretend to be preparing to do a drop kick, the man on the mark would jump into the air as Foote approached and, he would continue running towards the man on the mark, bounce the ball, and run straight past him, giving him the opportunity to deliver the ball much further up the ground.

==Sixth round 1947==
Les Foote was responsible for one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in the last quarter of an AFL/VFL football match. In the sixth round of the home-and-home season (24 May 1947), playing at the [[Arden Street Oval]] against Essendon, North Melbourne was 44 points behind at three-quarter time: North 7.8 (50) v Essendon 14.10 (94).

Coming into the match, North Melbourne were on the bottom of the ladder and had lost the two preceding matches. In the fourth round (10 May 1947), North Melbourne had been thrashed by [[Fitzroy Football Club|Fitzroy]] by 101 points, and did not kick a goal until the last quarter, while in the fifth round (17 May 1947), North Melbourne had been beaten by [[Western Bulldogs|Footscray]] by 41 points after trailing all day.

Foote placed himself into the ruck at three-quarter time. He dominated the ruck, and North Melbourne were so dominant during the last quarter that the ball was at Essendon's end of the ground only once, and North scored 8.4 (52) to Essendon's zero to win the match by 8 points: North 15.12 (102) d. Essendon 14.10 (94).

To put the magnitude of this astounding win into some sort of perspective, the team that North Melbourne thrashed in the last quarter of that match went on to play in the Grand Final that year, losing by a single point when Carlton's [[Fred Stafford]] goaled with 40 seconds left to play.

Further, to get some perspective of Foote's astonishing performance as a ruckman on that day, at 182&nbsp;cm [http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/L/Les_Foote.html] he was dominating the three ruckmen Essendon had selected to play that day; namely, [[Ivan Goodingham]] (191&nbsp;cm [http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/I/Ivan_Goodingham.html]), [[Perc Bushby]] (189&nbsp;cm [http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/P/Percy_Bushby.html]), [[Bob McClure (footballer)|Bob McClure]] (188&nbsp;cm [http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/B/Bob_McClure.html]).

This record stood unbeaten for 45 years.

==First Grand Final==
Foote was the first man to captain [[North Melbourne Football Club|North Melbourne]] into a [[1950 VFL Grand Final|VFL Grand Final in 1950]], having played a career-best game against Geelong in the previous week's Preliminary Final, in which he almost single-handedly converted a seven-goal (42-point) deficit into a 17-point win for North Melbourne.

Essendon had already beaten North Melbourne in the Second Semi-Final 11.14 (80) to 11.11 (77) when, in driving rain, and with 30 seconds remaining, and with North Melbourne three points in front, North Melbourne's [[Jock McCorkell]] unexpectedly punched a ball that was already rolling out over the boundary line back into play just before it crossed the line, Essendon's [[John Coleman (Australian footballer)|John Coleman]] pounced on the ball and passed it to [[Ron McEwin]] in the goal square. McEwin kicked the goal, and Essendon won by three points.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090207064835/http://aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060A000900]

North Melbourne's disappointment with such a narrow and unexpected loss was compounded by the fact that North Melbourne's champion full-forward [[Jock Spencer]] had earlier had what had seemed to be a legitimate spectacular aerial mark (i.e., a "[[specky|speckie]]") disallowed in controversial circumstances.

Although Essendon had only lost one match during the season, many thought that North Melbourne, having lost such a close match two weeks before, and having played so well against Geelong, really had a good chance of winning the Grand Final against Essendon.

However, in an unexpectedly one-sided match, with a rain-lashed third quarter, North Melbourne "went the knuckle", rather than playing football, and they specifically targeted the Essendon star players [[Dick Reynolds]], [[Ron McEwin]], [[Bill Snell]], [[Albert Harper|Bert Harper]], [[Ted Leehane]], and John Coleman.<ref>See Mapleston (1996), pp. 162–164, and Ross (1996), p.189.</ref> Essendon won the 1950 Grand Final 13.14 (92) to 7.12 (54) in front of a crowd of 87,601.

==Coaching==
Foote took up a captain-coach position with the [[Berrigan Football Club]] in New South Wales. He coached them for two years before returning to the VFL in 1954 as captain-coach St Kilda.

In 1954, having returned to the highest, toughest, and fastest level of Australian Rules football, and at the (in those days) advanced age of 30, Foote won St Kilda's best and fairest in front of the [[1958 Brownlow Medal|1958 Brownlow]] Medalist [[Neil Roberts (Australian footballer)|Neil Roberts]], the 8-time Victorian representative [[Keith Drinan]], and 4-time Victorian representative and 1958 All-Australian player [[Jim A. Ross|Jim Ross]] (the three won seven best and fairest awards between them).

In 1976, he was non-playing coach of [[Victorian Football Association|VFA]] Club [[Box Hill Hawks|Box Hill]].

==Awards==
He won three best and fairest awards with North Melbourne (1945, 1949, and 1950).

He won the St Kilda [[Trevor Barker Award|best and fairest]] award in 1954.

Les Foote was inducted into the [[Australian Football Hall of Fame]] in 1996.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010407052945/http://www.geocities.com/shinboner_99/lfoote.htm Les Foote Hall of Fame member #9<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

In 2005, Foote was named [[North Melbourne Football Club#Shinboner of the Century|Shinboner of the early era]] (1925–1950)

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/2017-03-14/200-club-push-for-mulga-baxter-and-bob|last=De Bolfo|first=Tony|title=200 Club push for 'Mulga', Baxter and Bob|publisher=Carlton Football Club|date=14 March 2017}}
* Maplestone, M., ''Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996'', Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. {{ISBN|0-9591740-2-8}}
* Ross, J. (ed), ''100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported'', Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. {{ISBN|0-670-86814-0}}
* Sheahan, M., "Foote a true North legend" (obituary), ''Herald Sun'', (Melbourne), 13 April 2006.

==External links==
* {{AFL Tables|L/Les_Foote}}
* [https://www.thevfaproject.org/pages/Players/Foote,_Les.php]
{{North Melbourne Team of The Century}}
{{Syd Barker Medal}}
{{Trevor Barker Award}}
{{North Melbourne Football Club captains}}
{{St Kilda Football Club captains}}
{{St Kilda Football Club coaches}}
{{1949 'Sporting Life' Team of the Year}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foote, Les}}
[[Category:St Kilda Football Club coaches]]
[[Category:Trevor Barker Award winners]]
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:St Kilda Football Club players]]
[[Category:North Melbourne Football Club players]]
[[Category:Northern Bullants players]]
[[Category:Syd Barker Medal winners]]
[[Category:Box Hill Football Club coaches]]
[[Category:Preston Football Club (VFA) coaches]]
[[Category:Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)]]