Tall, strong and wiry, Ivor Warne-Smith was a superb mark and a long kick and had the knack of breaking through packs and into damaging space. In 1949 Victorian selector George Cathie described him as the most perfect footballer to play between the wars. He had an air of maturity and quiet confidence, could handball with precision and kick equally well with either foot.
Born at Lavender Bay in Sydney on October 29th 1897, Warne-Smith was educated at Wesley College Melbourne where he excelled as a footballer, cricketer and all round athlete. In the 1913-14 season he played with Collegians in the Metropolitan Amateur Association.
He enlisted at age 17 and was at war from 1915 to 1918 serving in Gallipoli and France. He returned home in 1919 and towards the end of that season played centre halfback for Melbourne.
He came to Tasmania in 1920 to Latrobe to become an apple farmer. Joining Latrobe in 1921 he astonished players and onlookers with his brilliance in his first game. Under his coaching the Diehards (Latrobe) won two premierships in 1922 and 1924 but also were runners up in 1923 losing to Ulverstone. He played in all the NWFU representative teams while on the Coast and led the Union team to a memorable victory in Burnie over the TFL in 1924 beating them 7.21.63 to 6.11.47. He was selected to play for Tasmania in the 1924 carnival but did not participate.
The victorious NWFU team of 1924. Ivor Warne-Smith is the first on the right.
After his successful stint in Tasmanian football he was approached to play with Richmond but was refused a clearance by Melbourne so he returned to the team in 1925 at the age of 27.
He played 146 games during his career with Melbourne and while usually a defender, Warne-Smith was also a formidable ruckman and played quite a few games from the centre or forward line. He was instrumental in Melbourne's first grand final win since 1900 in 1926. He was the first player to win the Brownlow medal twice, first in Melbourne's premiership year in 1926 when he received a record nine first votes and again in 1928.
He captain coached Melbourne from 1928 to 1931 retiring at the end of the 1931 season. He coached Melbourne for another year and was persuaded to come out of retirement but only for a few games during the 1932 season.
He later went on to serve on the MCC and Melbourne Football Club committees and worked with coach Norm Smith in the 1950's as Chairman of Selectors, building the winning sides of Melbourne's finest era.
He died in 1960 aged 63.
On the 24th June 2000 at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne a picture of Ivor Warne-Smith smiled out at his four grandsons, there to accept for him the position of centre half forward in the Melbourne Football Club's team of the Century presentation. He joined other Tasmanian football legends
Bob "Tassie" Johnson
and Stuart Spencer
in receiving this honour.
