Bonny Campbell
{{short description|Australian rules footballer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2016}}
{{Use Australian English|date=February 2016}}
{{Infobox AFL biography
| name = Bonny Campbell
| image =
| fullname = Hugh Campbell
| birth_date = {{birth date|1898|3|1|df=yes}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|1987|4|28|1898|3|1|df=yes}}{{cite book | title=1987 West Australian Football Register |author1=Poat, Peter |author2=East, Alan |name-list-style=amp | year=1987 | page=117}}
| death_place =
| height =
| weight =
| position =
| statsend = 1928
| years1 = 1915
| club1 = North Fremantle
| games_goals1 = 12 (1)
| years2 = 1916–1922
| club2 = South Fremantle
| games_goals2 = 88 (271)
| years3 = 1924–1928
| club3 = East Perth
| games_goals3 = 88 (358)
| games_goalstotal = 188 (630)
| sooteam1 = Western Australia
| sooyears1 = 1921-1928
| soogames_goals1 = 15 (86)
| careerhighlights =
}}
Hugh "Bonny" Campbell (1 March 1898 – 28 April 1987) was an Australian rules footballer who played 188 West Australian Football League (WAFL) games and kicked 630 goals. He was a star full forward in the WAFL, a regular West Australian interstate representative, and famously for kicked 23 goals in a game for Western Australia against Queensland at the 1924 Hobart Carnival.
Football
Campbell played school football for Kingston ex-Scholars in the North Fremantle area. After playing for Kingston in a curtain raiser to a 1915 WAFL match between North Fremantle and South Fremantle, he offered to back up and play the senior game for North Fremantle, which was one man short. He played with North Fremantle for much of the rest of the season, after which the club folded.{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily News|date=10 May 1929|page=8|title=Has played his last game|publication-place=Perth, WA}}
Playing as a half back flanker he helped South Fremantle to win back to back premierships in 1916 and 1917.
A few years later, South Fremantle lost its regular full-forward to injury, and Campbell was asked to fill in. He was so successful in his new position that he remained there permanently. By 1921, he was the regular state full-forward, a position he retained until his retirement.‘Has Played His Last Game: "Bonny" Campbell’s Brilliant Career; Strategist and Goal-Kicking Prodigy’; The Daily News, 10 May 1929, p. 8 For the 1922 season, Campbell was named captain of South Fremantle, and finished the season as the WAFL's leading goalkicker for the first time.
=East Perth=
In 1923, Campbell sought a clearance to four-time defending premiers East Perth, but South Fremantle refused to clear him. East Perth had secured employment for Campbell in the city, which was a means sometimes used to entice players to switch clubs without technically breaking the league's rules against amateurism; but South nevertheless refused the clearance, and the league's Protests and Disputes Board upheld South's position. As a result, he sat out of the 1923 season.{{cite news|newspaper=The Call|date=8 June 1923|publication-place=Perth, WA|title=Come back, Bonnie|page=8}}
Campbell was finally cleared to East Perth prior to the 1924 season, and immediately resumed his position as the league's foremost goalkicker. He set a new record for most goals in a WAFL premiership season, finishing with 67,{{cite news|newspaper=The Call|publication-place=Perth, WA|title=Sixty-five majors - Campbell gets record|date=12 September 1924|page=11}} in addition to a record-setting 51 goals in five matches for Western Australia (see below).
Campbell topped the goalkicking again in 1926, finishing with a then-national record of 89 goals in a premiership season,{{cite news|newspaper=Sport|date=5 November 1926|page=14|title="Bonny Campbell"|publication-place=Adelaide, SA}} then won the goalkicking again in 1927 with 87.{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily News|publication-place=Perth, WA|title=Football review - season in retrospect|date=11 October 1927|page=2}} He was also part of East Perth's premiership winning teams in both 1926 and 1927. Shortly before the 1929 season was due to open, Campbell announced unexpectedly that he would be retiring.
Campbell had a reputation as a supremely accurate set shot as the major contribution to his success. Unlike most successful full forwards who preceded him, Campbell favoured drop kicks or punt kicks over place kicks,{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily News|publication-place=Perth, WA|title=Champion back with East Perth – as executive |page=17|date=16 January 1950}} and future scribes ascribed the death of the place kick in Western Australia at least in part to Campbell's successes.{{cite news|newspaper=Western Mail|publication-place=Perth, WA|title=Place kicking is a lost art|author=W.V.F.|page=17|date=12 June 1947}} He also had a reputation as a good mark, and a clean and unselfish player.
=Western Australia=
Campbell represented his state fifteen times throughout his career. He was best remembered for his record-breaking performance in at 1924 Hobart Carnival match against minnows Queensland, in which he scored 23 goals (out of Western Australia's record score of 43.19) despite heavy rain, including ten in the third quarter alone.{{cite news|newspaper=The News|publication-place=Hobart, TAS|title=Dreary day and small crowd|date=12 August 1924|page=1}} The performance matched South Australian Bos Daly's 1893 record of 23 goals in a top level state or interstate match, and – if George Gough's 25 goals in a 1924 Victorian Football Association match are excluded due to that league's second tier status at that time – remains the record as of 2020.{{cite news|newspaper=The Argus|publication-place=Melbourne|title=Football – Fourth place struggle|date=1 September 1924|page=13|author=Old Boy}} Across the five matches of the carnival, Campbell kicked a record 51 goals, with hauls of 10 against New South Wales, 8 against Victoria, 7 against Tasmania and 3 against South Australia.
See also
Footnotes
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{AustralianFootball}}
- {{WAFL FootyFacts}}
{{WAFL leading goalkickers}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Bonny}}
Category:Australian rules footballers from Western Australia
Category:East Perth Football Club players
Category:North Fremantle Football Club players