If you are younger than about 50 the odds are Norm Smith is just the fella after which the medal for the player judged best afield in the AFL Grand Final is named.

After all, Smith died 46 years ago today, on July 29, 1973.

But he is so much more. He was named coach of the AFL Team of the Century in 1996 and in 2007 was just the second coach awarded Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

A six-time premiership coach at Melbourne, he is regarded as the father of modern-day coaching after having done so much to further the cause of the men in charge off the field.

He had increased the importance of the coach with innovations such as using a runner to send messages to his players in 1955, and raised the standards of fitness and team discipline to enable the evolution of the so-called ‘running game’ in the 1970s.

A quiet and retiring type away from football, he was known as a great orator and a stern taskmaster. He was blunt at times, but was universally admired and respected for his insightful thinking on the game and his mantra that teamwork was everything.

Although his time with the Swans is only part of his massive contribution to football it is only fitting that the anniversary of his passing is properly celebrated.

The son of an ironworker who attended Westgarth Central School, Smith had completed an engineering apprenticeship and worked at Miller’s ropeworks in Brunswick before taking on his father’s engineering business in Northcote.

After he had left an indelible mark on the game he was recruited to South Melbourne in 1969 and coached the club in 87 games from 1969-1972.

In 1970, after South had been 25 years out of the finals, Smith pulled off one of the coaching masterstrokes to take the club to what turned out to be Bob Skilton’s only finals appearance.

The club, the losing grand finalist in 1945, had not had a ‘winning’ season since 1952, when it finished fifth with 11 wins, seven losses and a draw.

In the 17 years prior to 1970 the Swans had twice recorded an even split at 9-9 in 1953 and 1965, but otherwise had finished no higher than eighth in the 12-team competition. And even then, in 1966, they had a 7-11 record.

They had finished ninth under Allan Miller in 1967-1968 when Smith surprised many by accepting an offer to take charge in 1969.

He brought with him an extraordinary resume. Having played 210 games with Melbourne (1935-1948) and 17 games with Fitzroy (1949-1950), he had coached Fitzroy in 1949-1951 before a golden 16-year stint at Melbourne in which the Demons won the flag in 1955-56-57-59-60-64.

But it had been a sometimes tumultuous relationship between Melbourne and the coaching maestro, and reached fever pitch when Melbourne favorite son Ron Barassi quit the club to take over as Carlton captain-coach in 1965.

The great Barassi, later to coach Sydney at the end of his career, had lived with Smith and his Maji from the age of 15, and became something of a Smith protégé.

Smith supported Barassi’s coaching aspirations, and even offered to stand down to allow Barassi to coach Melbourne. But when Barassi rejected his generous offer and insisted on a release to Carlton some Melbourne officials unfairly accused Smith of ridding himself of a potential rival.

Smith at times was known to take a stern tongue to club officials who interfered with his coaching, and when he was sued by an umpire for defamation he received no support from the club in his defence.

Finally, things exploded after Melbourne’s Round 13 match of 1965 in which the then third-placed Demons had lost to 10^th-placed North Melbourne by 21 points at Coburg Oval.

A courier delivered a termination notice to Smith’s home.

It was one of the biggest football stories of all-time when news leaked to the media, and on the Sunday Smith made an emotional appearance on television amid speculation he would replace his ill brother Len, who was coaching Richmond at the time.

Smith was reinstated at Melbourne the following week, but things were never the same. They won only one more game that season to miss the finals for the first time in 11 years.

They finished 11^th in 1966 and 7^th in 1967 under Smith before he retired due to heart problems, and would not play in the finals again until 1987.

But Smith’s health had improved, and after Miller had been moved on South Melbourne club secretary Noel Brady visited Smith at his Pascoe Vale home in inner suburban Melbourne.

So confident was Brady that Smith would take the job he called president Brian Bourke and asked him to get to Smith’s house as soon as possible.

It was later revealed in the book “The Red Fox”, written by Ben Collins, that Smith had agreed to take on the job under a string of conditions linked only to his health.

Bourke told how Smith had explained that he was unable to get out onto the ground as other coaches did, and how he had done previously.

But he said he would take the job if the club could secure Ian Thorogood as his assistant-coach, Clyde Laidlaw as reserves coach, and Donny Williams to coach the thirds, or Under 19s. This trio had been with him at Melbourne, and he wanted familiar faces around him.

Smith reportedly told Bourke he was not interested in money, but Bourke settled the coaching fee at $25,000 a year.

“The deal was done within about 20 minutes of me arriving. I’d had no idea Norm Smith was interested in coaching again so it was a complete fluke that we got him,” Bourke said.

Smith was a strict disciplinarian from the outset, and showed no lenience, even, for champion Skilton after he arrived late for the club’s Annual General Meeting at South Melbourne Town Hall.

He later told Skilton: “Bobby, I’m coach here now. Never be late for another function at South Melbourne. Understand?”

Still, discipline was only one thing. South had lost champion fullback John Heriot to a captain-coach role with VFA club Yarraville,  and Des Bethke had retired, later to become Town Clerk of the Melbourne City Council.

As is recorded ‘In the Blood’, the official Swans history written by Jim Main, Smith had inherited limited playing strength and “was asked to transform pigs’ ears to silk’.

Still, having secured Steve Hoffman, David McLeish and John Pitura via the country zoning system introduced in 1968, he recruited Wayne Walsh from Richmond, picked up fellow Tiger Alan Richardson mid-season and lured Fred Way back to the club after he had indicated he was leaving for business reasons.

Writing in The Sporting Globe, former Collingwood champion Bill Twomey suggested in the season ahead South would have to rely on the Norm Smith ‘magic’ under the heading ‘Sound Need A Miracle’.

It got worse. On the eve of the 1969 season Skilton snapped an Achilles in a practice match against Port Adelaide. Under caretaker captain John Rantall, South finished ninth for the third year in a row with a 7-13 record. Peter Bedford, in his second season, won the best & fairest from Way and Haydn McAuliffe.

South were tipped to improve in 1970 in Smith’s second year at the helm, and picked up good players in Reg Gleeson, Gary Brice, Shane McKew, South Australian John Murphy and Rick Quade.

Quade, from Ariah Park, injured his knee on debut and missed the rest of the season, but would go on to be a great of club, later serving as captain, coach, chairman of selectors and as a director.

South started loss-win-loss in 1970 and then won four in a row to find themselves second on the ladder. Another loss-win-loss run was followed by five wins on the trot which at Round 15 saw them second on the ladder behind Collingwood.

They then lost three in a row, and then won three in a row. But after going into Round 22 third on the ladder they copped a 96-point hiding from minor premiers Collingwood at Victoria Park in front of a massive crowd of 39.541.

So, they finished fourth. It was Collingwood (72 points) from Carlton (64), St.Kilda (56) and South Melbourne (56) before Bedford thrilled Swans fans when he won the 1970 Brownlow Medal in what was the first time the gala evening was televised live.

Sadly, the resurgence ended a week later when South lost 13-12 (90) to 22-11 (143) at the MCG in the first semi-final in front of a crowd of 104,329.

Skilton (27) led the possession count from Walsh (23), Hoffman (21), Murphy (21) and Brice (20). Hoffman kicked four goals and Bedford and John Sudholz three each, but after kicking  7-3 to 3-2 in the second term to lead by five points at halftime the Swans couldn’t hang on.

It was St.Kilda by 22 points at three-quarter time before they ran away with it.

Still, Smith had made his mark, even though the Swans fell away to finish last in 1971 with a 3-19 record and second-last in 1972 at 2-20.

At the end of the 1972 season Smith stepped aside to end an association with the Swans.

He had planned to join Barassi as an assistant at North but his health deteriorated again and he died of a cerebral tumour on 29 July 1973.

In 1979 the Norm Smith legacy was recognised when for the first time the AFL awarded the Norm Smith Medal to the player judged best afield in the grand final.

Fittingly, the first winner was Smith's great nephew, Carlton player Wayne Harmes. The grandson of Len Smith, Norm’s brother, Harmes received the medal from Norm’s widow Marj.