The appointment of (later Sir) Ross Hutchinson as South Fremantle coach in 1947 not only led to their  first premiership for three decades, and the beginning of the club’s “golden years,” but was indirectly responsible for the recruitment of one of its best ever players.

Laurie Green had always had a leaning to East Fremantle, and the presence in the side of cousin Jock Green, a State wingman, was almost enough to get him into a blue and white guernsey. The mentoring skills of Hutchinson, his teacher at Richmond school in East Fremantle, had left an impression on the youngster, however, and his presence at South drew Laurie to Fremantle Oval.

His family having moved to Koorda when he was fifteen, Green soon made his mark on the football field with the local side, playing seniors at sixteen and winning the Hugh Leslie Medal for fairest and best in the Wyalkatchem Football Association.

But the league football career of Laurie Green might well have ended six weeks into the 1948 season.

“After six games in South Fremantle’s reserves with the league side only having lost one game I reckoned my chances of breaking in were nil, and decided it’d be better to play in the country than in the early game, so caught the train back home,” he recalled.  

On arriving back in Koorda the following Friday, he was quickly told by his father that his name was listed in The West Australian at centre half forward for South Fremantle in Saturday’s big clash with West Perth, playing on Fred Buttsworth. “I had to catch the same train on it’s return journey to Perth, and it pulled into Wellington Street  mid Saturday morning.”

Green lined up on the State centre half back in front of just under seventeen thousand fans, and impressed with his contributions to a twenty four point win over the strong West Perth side. He was never out of the team after that, his efforts going a long way toward a premiership triumph that year over the same West Perth outfit with ironically an identical margin. It was a memorable season for the boy from Koorda, with a trip to the Eastern States giving the club genuine claims to the title of best in the land, beating a combined Collingwood-Fitzroy side in Melbourne, Canberra in Canberra, and New South Wales in Sydney.   

AW Walker Medal winner in his second season at South, Green was also a member of the State side that year, his gymnastic ability on the ground and in the air complemented by a stream of perfectly timed passes to Naylor making him a dynamic part of the strong red and white combination.      

Laurie went on to be a significant cog in the machine that dominated the WANFL for nine seasons and collected six flags, sharing in four of them, with injury causing him to miss the 1952 grand final.  His understanding with centreman Clive Lewington and goalsneak Bernie Naylor was a feature of his play, and it was to become a significant factor in the side’s success. He was also a good foil for the star goalkicker, averaging around forty goals a season himself.  

Initially employed at the Ford Motor Company in North Fremantle, Laurie later went shearing, which meant that he would arrive at Fremantle on Friday night for the weekends match and return to the bush after the game. The hard work in the shearing shed made up for any shortage of training. 

A tragic football accident early in the eighth game of the 1954 season brought an abrupt halt to Laurie Green’s spectacular football career. “I was running into goal as Dave Hill was charging out,” he recalled. “It was no fault of the West Perth ruckman, but his knee cannoned into my stomach, and, although I finished the game, found myself in hospital that night for a kidney removal.”

“With two kids and no money in the game, it wasn’t worth continuing,” Laurie said. The hundred game career of the star centre half forward had come to an all too early end at the age of twenty six.

It wasn’t to be quite the end of football for Green, however.

Twenty years later, when he should have been concentrating on his golf, he pulled on the boots again for Booralaning Football Club, near Koorda. Coaching the side at the time, things were a little shaky approaching the finals, with a player shortage and a couple of wins needed, so Laurie lined up at full forward twice, booting ten goals in the second game. “We made the finals, so I strategically withdrew from the twenty. We lost the grand final,” he lamented.

Son Garrick emulated his father by winning the Koorda Association’s fairest and best award, while grandson Chad is a star in country football, with many good judges rating him highly. Chad has won many awards, including several Association fairest and best trophies, and captains the Koorda Association at Country Week.    

Green’s first opponent in league football, Fred Buttsworth, along with Swans defender Duggan Anderson, Perth’s “Nugget” Hilsz, and East Fremantle pair Ken Ebbs and Bob Hicks rate highly as tough opponents, while Steve Marsh, Clive Lewington, Eric Erickson, and Frank Treasure were best he’d played with.

Despite his career being cut short by injury, Laurie Green stamped himself into football history as one of South Fremantle’s best ever forwards and was a key component of arguably one of the best Western Australian football teams of all time.