Hawk gets the nod

By Casey Neill
A FORMER Monbulk footballer will this weekend be immortalised as one of Hawthorn’s greatest players.
This Friday, 19 March, the Hawks will induct Albert Hyde into their Hall of Fame for his 50-plus years of club service.
Hyde passed away in 1989. His stepdaughter, Janice Edwards, will accept the honour on his behalf.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” she said.
“He would be absolutely overjoyed. He lived and breathed Hawthorn.”
Hyde began his football career with Monbulk Football Club in 1922 at age 15.
He had moved to the hills with his family after doctors told his father the fresh mountain air would improve his health after he had endured a World War I mustard gas attack.
Hyde initially signed up as a boundary umpire but registered as a player later that year.
In 1923 he was the side’s leading goal kicker and a premiership player, and by the following year was the Mountain District Football Association’s leading forward.
He still holds a Monbulk club record for his 19 goals in a match against Macclesfield in the season opener.
It was a 17-goal haul against Glen Waverley in 1925 that brought him to Hawthorn’s attention.
“I was breaking my neck to play league football,” Hyde said just before his death.
“Hawthorn were going to give me the opportunity.”
He made his VFL debut late in 1925 as an 18-year-old and led the Hawks’ goal kicking in the next five seasons.
His best effort was a 62-goal haul in 1928 in a Hawthorn side that failed to win a game for the year.
That year he also was selected as the Victorian full-forward in a clash against South Australia, and starred with six goals.
Hyde was named as the state’s fullback in 1933 after Hawthorn moved him to the back line to help bolster the struggling side.
He is the only player to have represented Victoria as a fullback and full-forward.
Hyde was renowned for his fast leads, high marking and soaring torpedo punts.
He had played 129 games and kicked 269 goals when he retired in 1935. He represented Victoria six times.
In 1936 he was captain-coach of Preston in what was then the VFA and won the Recorder Cup (now J. J. Liston Trophy) for the competition’s best and fairest.
Hyde remained an integral part of the Hawks after his retirement.
He served on club committees, played a leading role in forming the Past Players Association and was a club talent spotter until the 1970s.
Hyde will be the 22nd Hawthorn Hall of Fame inductee. Gary Buckenara and J. W. Kennon will also be inducted this weekend at The Main Event at Melbourne’s Hilton on the Park.