SWFL legend knew ‘football inside-out’

Times Tribute

Maxwell Lance McGuire

Born: Brookton, February 8, 1938

Died: Bunbury, June 9, 2012

VALE Max McGuire, a legend of the South West Football League.

Born on February 8, 1938 at Brookton, Max progressed to be one of regional WA's most accomplished footballers and rose to prominence in the South West where he played with Bunbury.

In 1954, he made his senior debut with Boddington in the Upper Great Southern Football League as a 16-yearold. Such was his impact on that competition, Max rose to claim the Leo Graham Medal in 1959 for the league’s best and fairest player.

The same year, he won the Caris Brothers Medal for being the fairest and best while playing for the UGSFL in the Great Southern carnival.

Max began playing for Bunbury in the early 1960s where he also enjoyed significant success and eventually became a life member.

An immensely talented and versatile player, Max was as well known for his off-field demeanour as his on-field ability.

Those who played with and against him knew him to be humble despite his achievements.

Graham Tidy, Max’s first coach at Bunbury, has fond memories of his mate.

‘‘He just had a terrific nature, he never back-chatted umpires and never rocked the boat, but he knew football inside-out,’’ he said.

‘‘You never really had to coach Max, he just knew what to do. He just knew it all.’’

Max had an immediate impact after joining Bunbury in 1961. That season he won the Hume Award —now called the Bristile Roofing Player of the Year — voted by journalists as the competition’s best player.

He won that award again in 1967 and the following year added a Hayward Medal to his list of achievements.

Max also won three fairest and best awards at Bunbury, where he was a triple premiership player.

He retired a celebrated luminary and champion at the end of the 1973 season, after 215 games for Bunbury.

In 2007 he was named in the SWFL Team of 50 years that celebrated the competition’s half century.

The same year, he was selected in Bunbury Football Club’s best team of the past 50 years. He died aged 74, on June 9, 2012.