William Faul
1932-1938
117 games
2 goals
Best and Fairest 1932
Premiership Player 1933
Coach 1960-1961
Swans Team of the Century

03:28

150 years: “Here it is!”

As we kick off our 2024 campaign, celebrate our 150th year of South Melbourne and the Sydney Swans.

As the only son to Kalgoorlie miner Albert Faul and his wife Mary, 'Bill' Faul grew up in Perth's western suburbs as a lover of sport, excelling at basketball, cricket and football. As a 17-year-old, he played in the Wembley Football Club's first-ever scratch match against Swan Valley in 1926. His passion for the game and his fledgling club, encapsulated by his involvement as an inaugural Wembley committee member from its foundation year in 1927, serving until 1929.

Blessed with a robust, stocky frame, Faul joined Subiaco in the Perth Football League in 1929, impacting as a 19-year-old defender. By 1931, he gained selection in the Western Australian team, with his superb season recognised when he claimed Subiaco's best and fairest award from the half-back flank.

During the late 1920s, the Australian economy suffered from a significant drop in wheat and wool prices. Then, the 1929 Wall Street stock market crash created a worldwide economic depression. Looking to combat the risk of their clubs over-spending on player payments during such a fiscally challenging time, the VFL introduced the 'Coulter Law,' which fixed a weekly maximum payment limit of £3 per player.

Thanks to vice-president Archie Crofts' financial backing, South Melbourne looked to recruit fresh talent from interstate. Western Australia registered one of the highest levels of unemployment in the country. When AFL Hall of Fame coach Johnny Leonard joined from Subiaco, he chose two teammates to accompany him—outstanding ruckman Brighton Diggins and uncompromising half-back Bill Faul, along with South Fremantle big man Gilbert Beard.

Jubilant scenes ensued when news of their approved clearance requests reached the Lake Oval. The Record reported, "The West Australian quartet—Leonard, Diggins, Beard, Faul—are splendid types of players and should do credit to the club both on and off the field. It is a coincidence that the four players are teetotalers and non-smokers."

Before he could make his South Melbourne debut, Faul needed to qualify residentially, meaning he'd miss the first two matches of the 1932 season. But, The Herald's football writer 'High-Mark' noted Faul's impressive form in practice matches. "Compactly-built, the Subiaco half-back promises to be one of the league's best defenders. His handling of the ball and distance passing are excellent."

Faul's tenacity and determination complemented his dash and anticipation brilliantly, and his first season in Victoria was exceptional. His outstanding play across half-back impressed in claiming South's best and fairest award while finishing runner-up in the 1932 Brownlow medal to Fitzroy's champion rover, Haydn Bunton.

After winning the first 10 matches of the season, South exited the finals series at the first hurdle, and despite Leonard's return to Perth, they improved the playing list further in 1933. The Bloods were building a reputation, and in June, columnist F. Keith Manzie and cartoonist Dick Ovenden of Table Talk magazine visited a Lake Oval training session.

Manzie described the club rooms as having the "appearance of an interstate footballers’ convention" and spoke first with "that dashing half-back, Billy Faul", discussing the multi-faceted approach to his physical conditioning. "I played a lot of basketball in the West," Faul said. "I was a member of the Wembley team playing in the WA Basketball Association, and not only did we win the premiership two years running, but we won 35 games in succession."

"Basketball's a great game, and there's nothing like it for keeping one in trim for football."

The enjoyable fitness regime reaped dividends, and Faul joined his Bloods teammates in lining up for the 1933 Grand Final against Richmond. South defeated the Tigers by 42 points in a superbly balanced team performance. The interstate recruits gelled with an already assembled core of local talent, with the happy, ambitious club celebrating its return to the pinnacle of the sport.

Now regarded as one of the league's leading backmen, Faul found another reason to celebrate in July 1934, announcing his engagement to Miss Joan Millie, whom he'd met while both were employed by Archie Crofts, alongside many of his South Melbourne teammates. The couple welcomed their first son into the world the following year.

South lost the 1934 Grand Final to Richmond, but Reg' Old Boy' Wilmott named Faul in his team of the season, published in The Argus. Illness curtailed much of Faul's 1935 season, but his return during a mid-season tour to New South Wales and Queensland prepared him for a timely return ahead of the finals. Unfortunately, they finished in disappointment again, as South Melbourne lost successive Grand Finals, succumbing to a determined Collingwood outfit.

Expectations were high ahead of the 1936 season. Faul, back to full fitness, played consistently again. A report in The Record celebrated his influence: "All his old bulldog tenacity has returned, and it is a common sight to see Bill battling single-handed against three or four opponents and emerging with the ball in his possession."

Ahead of their fifth successive finals campaign, 2,000 loyal supporters attended training at the Lake Oval. Buoyed by their support, South qualified for their fourth successive Grand Final, facing Collingwood again.

The Magpies prevailed in the final minutes of play, and in The Argus, Percy Taylor described their performance as "play very near to perfection". Taylor described Faul and his defensive teammates as South's "strongest link" on the day, but the third Grand Final defeat in a row left a void they couldn't fill.

Despite performing consistently across the 1937 and 1938 seasons, Faul grew disenchanted with the club's direction. The gloss of the club's golden era had dissipated, and in Bloodstained Angels: The Rise and Fall of the Foreign Legion, Mark Branagan and Mike Lefebvre explain why: "The ultimate collapse of the Foreign Legion lay in errors of administration. The club failed to pay sufficient attention to recruitment after 1934, to the harmony of local players ignored in the clamour for interstate recruits and to the disenchantment of a fickle membership."

In 1939, Faul requested a clearance to Prahran, to commence his captain-coach position at the VFA club. South denied his request, but he departed anyway. He subsequently coached Northcote, Moorabbin, and the VFA representative teams. In 1960, Faul returned to the Lake Oval as coach of South Melbourne for two seasons, winning the Night Premiership and employing Bob Skilton as captain.

In 1950, reflecting on Faul's impact at South, Johnny Leonard told The West Australian, "When he first played for that club, officials were not greatly impressed, but in his first year, he was runner-up in the Brownlow Medal and convinced all Victorians that he was a footballer to his finger-tips—a tigerish half-back."

The quality of Bill Faul's remarkable career is demonstrated by his selection in the Swans Team of the Century, the Prahran Team of the Century, and the Subiaco Team of the Century. He passed away in 1974, aged 65.