Player Inductee
North Launceston/Cananore, Centre Half Back, 1919-32
> 163 games for North Launceston, 1919-27, 1929-32
> 30 games for Cananore, 1927-28
> North Launceston NTFA premierships, 1923, 1925, 1931
> Cananore TFL and state premierships, 1927
> Tasmanian National Carnival representative, 1924 (Hobart)
> Selected in every NTFA/state representative match between 1921 and 1927
> Won 10 ‘Best Player’ trophies in combined games
> More than 20 representative matches for the NTFA
A champion centre half back, Don Scott was a mainstay of the powerful North Launceston sides of the 1920s.
The younger brother of fellow Hall of Famer Alan Scott, Don was born in 1903 and made his senior debut for North Launceston at the age of just 16 in 1919. Such were his performances that he was selected to represent the NTFA against the TFL the same year, and from that point on Scott and his brother would form the backbone of a Robins team that would feature in nine NTFA grand finals between 1921 and 1932. Premierships in 1921, 1923 and 1925 and a controversial draw in 1922 were all greatly influenced by the performance of Scott in his customary centre half back position, where he was able to use his high marking and superb athleticism to great effect.
From his first representative game with the NTFA as a 16-year-old, Don Scott became almost the first player picked whenever NTFA selection rolled around. He would play in every single fixture the NTFA combined team contested between 1919 and 1927 against not just the TFL and NWFU, but also several visiting interstate teams such as West Adelaide and Collingwood. In 1924 he was selected to represent his state at the Hobart Carnival and once again impressed as one of his state’s stand-out performers. Overall, Scott played more than 20 representative matches and won 10 best player trophies, that figure in itself an indication of his skill as a player.
Interestingly, Scott holds the unique honour of representing two different intrastate teams in the same season: after representing the NTFA early in 1927, Scott was transferred to Hobart half-way through the year and joined Cananore in the TFL, playing for the TFL side against the NTFA in the return fixture later that year. 1927 would also see Scott win the only state premiership of his illustrious career, as the Canaries overcame his old side North Launceston by 17 points at North Hobart Oval.
After 30 games with Cananore in 1927-28, Scott returned to North Launceston for the 1929 season. A fourth NTFA premiership in 1931 over Longford would be his last, and Scott retired as a player after the 1932 grand final loss to City after 163 games for the club.
The year after his retirement, Don Scott was elected a life member of the NTFA. In later life he acted as an independent delegate to the NTFA and was a selector on several occasions for representative matches. His contribution to the North Launceston Football Club was immortalised when the club’s senior Best and Fairest award was named in honour of himself and his brother Allan.
