George ‘Chopper’ Arnott, one of Tasmania’s most notable footballers of the 1950s and 1960s, passed away in Hobart on Thursday aged 86 years.
George was born in West Calder, near Edinburgh, in Scotland, and was being watched by scouts from Heart of Midlothian because of his footballing talent when he was only 15.
He came out to Tasmania on his own as a 17-year-old in 1951 and was asked to join local Scottish club, Caledonians, the club with which he made his name and captained, when he was spotted watching a game at South Hobart and wearing a Tartan scarf and tie.
His first regular season with
Caledonians was in 1952 and he was soon a key player in the side and was chosen
to represent Southern Tasmania and the senior Tasmanian side against intrastate
and interstate opposition. He played for Tasmania against every other Australian State.
George was a forward and he represented Tasmania at the national carnival in Adelaide in 1954, when he scored 10 of Tasmania’s 14 goals.
He also played against South China Athletic Association, Chinese Athletic, the Australian Olympic XI, and to his great delight, Heart of Midlothian, in 1959.
He played 26 times for Southern Tasmania and also captained the side.
By 1962, when he was named as “Jack Cade’s Player-of-the-Year” in the Saturday Evening Mercury, he had made more than 275 appearances for Caledonians and scored more than 200 goals for the club, including 66 in one season.
He once scored 9 goals in a game in which Caledonians beat Titan 11-2.
George was captain of Caledonians when they won the State Premiership in 1960 and also when they won the combined Falkinder Cup and Charles Lucas Memorial Trophy in 1962.
By 1962, he had won Caledonians’ best and fairest award twice. It had only been running for three years at that stage.
During his time with Caledonians, the club won six State Premierships, ten Falkinder Cups and two Lucas Trophies.
George took no prisoners and was renowned for his physical, robust style of play, hence the nickname ‘Chopper’.
He was also on the receiving end of some rough and tough play and took it on the chin.
In one game against Croatia-Glenorchy at South Hobart, he was flattened by Croatia’s Tony Skaro. When his team-mates rallied around him and tried to lift him up, George begged them to leave him on the ground and mumbled something about if he got up, Skaro would flatten him again.
I know of one goalkeeper at least who still carries the scars of an Arnott challenge on his fingers.
George was of the old school and goalkeepers were fair game at corners and in any aerial confrontations.
Apart for Caledonians, the only other club George played for was Launceston Juventus. He joined them when he was transferred to Launceston in his work with the Department of Agriculture.
Launceston Juventus were known as a hard, physical side and George fitted the team like a hand in a glove.
After retiring as a player, George, turned his attention to administration and served on the committee of the Tasmanian Soccer Association for some years.
He also served on the Caledonians committee and on the committee of Kingborough Lions, after the merger of Caledonians and Kingborough.
He was a father figure to one of Tasmania’s star imports, Ian Parker, when he arrived from England in the late 1970s to join Caledonians. Parker lived with the Arnotts for a number of years.
George was inducted into the Kingborough Lions United Hall of Fame.
He was always keen to help his club and, together with his wife, Betty, and Bernard and Patty Siggins and Terry and Margaret Collins, was a familiar figure in the club’s kiosk at the back of the grandstand at Grove Road.
George was a good friend and I enjoyed our conversations about football over the years.
He will be missed by his daughter Barbara and sons David and Ian, and by his ten grandchildren, as well as by all who knew him.
Photo: George Arnott (right) with son Ian at the Showgrounds in Hobart in September 2012. [PlessPix]
Photo: Ian Parker (left) and George Arnott (right) with former Caledonians stars and stalwarts (L-R) Spinner Adkins, Tony Walner, Bernard Siggins and Terry Collins. [PlessPix]
