Naylor and Whinnen honoured in Hall of Fame

WA football champions Bernie Naylor and Mel Whinnen have been inducted into the Australian Football Hall Of Fame at a function hosted by the AFL on Tuesday night in Melbourne.

Bernie Naylor was a champion player for South Fremantle. The fast leading full-forward kicked over 1000 goals in nine seasons of league football, and more than 100 goals in a season five times.

Naylor’s football career began in 1941, but he missed the next four seasons when the competition was suspended due to World War II. He served as a signal man in Darwin and New Guinea, where he practised his goal kicking between palm trees.

He returned in 1946 and continued to dominate WA football until retiring in 1954.

Naylor was a goal-kicking genius. He perfected the torpedo punt, and was a dynamic goal sneak that had the uncanny ability to time his lead to perfection.

It was in a match against Subiaco in 1953 Naylor kicked an unbelievable 23 goals, and he kicked 12 of those goals in one quarter. He kicked a record 156 goals in qualifying matches that season and by the end of the finals he had added 11 more to that tally.

The Bernie Naylor Medal is awarded to the WAFL’s leading goalkicker.

West Perth champion Mel Whinnen was one of the most consistent, durable and reliable midfielders of his era. His 371 game tally is the highest by any player who represented just one club.

Whinnen’s football career began at the age of 17 where he progressed through the colts and the reserves to the seniors, where he sat on the bench in a premiership side. And he became a 32-year-old hero in 1975 when he won his fourth flag for the Falcons.

The Falcons’ star is revered for winning a WAFL-record nine best and fairests as a centreman and his career of 142 Sandover medal votes in the era of the 3-2-1 voting system is easily the highest by a player not to win the medal. Whinnen finished second in two Sandover Medals, to Barry Cable in 1964 and David Hollins in 1971.
 

Bernie Naylor

194 games for South Fremantle 1941, 1946-54, kicking 1034 goals.
16 games for Western Australia, kicking 44 goals.
South Fremantle premiership 1947-48, 1950, 1952-54.
South Fremantle Best and Fairest 1953.
South Fremantle Leading Goalkicker 1941, 1946-54.
WAFL Leading Goalkicker 1946-48, 1952-54.
West Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Mel Whinnen 

371 games for West Perth, 1960-77, kicking 72 goals.
14 games for Western Australia, kicking one goal.
Premierships 1960, 1969, 1971, 1975.
Best and Fairest 1962, 1964, 1967-68, 1970-73, 1975.
Captain 1977.
Simpson Medal 1975.