Ted Tyson

Who is Ted Tyson?

Edward Arthur “Ted” Tyson was an Australian rules footballer who played with West Perth in the Western Australian National Football League. He is the second-greatest goalkicker in the various incarnations of West Australian Football League behind Austin Robertson, Jr., with 1,197 goals.

Tyson came from a leading Western Australian footballing family; his uncle Charlie Tyson played for Collingwood and North Melbourne Football Clubs in the Victorian Football League, while his grandfather, father and four other uncles also played football to a high standard. He debuted for the Cardinals in 1930 and kicked over fifty goals despite the club winning only six and drawing one of its eighteen games. The following year, Tyson established a permanent position at full forward and kicked eighty-one goals, which at the time was the fifth-highest total in league history. 1932 saw Tyson move further with ninety-six goals, equalling Sol Lawn’s record from three seasons beforehand. To cap it off, Tyson produced an outstanding display with eight goals in the Grand Final, a record for a WANFL Grand Final not beaten until Eric Gorman in 1963.

The following season, Tyson made four appearances for Western Australia in interstate football, all at the 1933 Sydney Carnival, where he kicked thirteen goals. However, the emergence of East Fremantle’s George Doig put paid to Tyson’s ambitions for regular interstate representation. Doig’s 152 goals in 1934 saw him take over the full-forward position for the state team until the pair were forced into virtual retirement by World War II. Between 1933 and 1937, although Tyson kicked over 100 goals four times, Doig invariably beat him for the league’s leading goal-kicker award and the full forward position in the State’s team. Nonetheless, Tyson played in two further Cardinal premiership teams in 1934 and 1935, and in 1938 managed to head the WANFL goalkicking with 126 goals, a figure made more remarkable because the once-powerful Cardinals had fallen to clear last on the ladder with only three wins. In the last match of that season Tyson kicked 17.5 of a team total of 18.7 against Swan Districts, which is the most goals for a losing side in senior Australian Rules football.