In Jim Main's series, 'Swan Songs', on great players from the past, this week he talks to another talented winger in Bob Giles...

Bob Giles
Born: May 22, 1930
Played: 1949-55
Games: 67
Goals: 3

Although Bob Giles played just 67 games with South Melbourne, he deserves to be remembered as one of the finest wingers to have worn the red and white.

His career was severely interrupted by business commitments in an era of part-time football.

Giles, born and bred in Albert Park just a few hundred metres from the Lake Oval, attended Melbourne High School and later graduated from university with an Applied Science degree.

He played with Sunday Amateur League club South Colts, where he was coached by South selector and former Swan Perc Horner.

A South supporter all his life, Giles accepted the invitation to join the Swans in 1949 and played alongside other Colts players in Eddie and Clarrie Lane, Jack Eichhorn and Gray “Mick” Sibun.

“There was quite a contingent of us,” Giles recalled. “But I was working with the Electrolux company at the time and was offered a transfer to Sweden.

“The company used to bring Swedish scientists to Australia, but it asked me if I would spend 18 months in Stockholm and in the centre of Sweden at control laboratories.

“This meant I had to interrupt my football career but, at that time, this was not unusual as no one made a living from football.”

Giles, on resuming with the Swans, proved himself to be one of the best wingers in the VFL. An elegant, classy mover with pin-point kicking skills, he seemed destined to become one of the great stars of his era. However, business again affected his football ambitions.

Giles in 1956 joined multi-national chemicals company Monsanto and, because of his work commitments, his football was consigned to being captain-coach of the Swan reserves.

Giles also served the Swans as the players’ representative on the club committee, but then was transferred to Sydney and, later to St Louis.

He spent two and a half years in the United States and returned in 1970, just in time to see the Swans play in their first finals series for 25 years.

Giles lived in Sydney from 1982 and, because the Swans relocated to the Harbour City that year, wrote to the club offering his help.

He was unable to meet the club’s request to employ players on a part-time basis, but only because his company did not have part-time employees.

Giles eventually returned to Melbourne and, after discovering that the Swans’ Past Players’ was in disarray, again offered his services and became the association’s vice-president, with Team of the Century full-back John Heriot as president.

Giles held the vice-presidency until 2005 when he became president of the Commonwealth Golf Club and did not have the time to serve both bodies.

Unfortunately, Giles played in an unsuccessful Swans’ era, even though the club had many of the best players in the VFL.

Giles listed Brownlow Medallists Ron Clegg and Fred Goldsmith, Jack Garrick, Bill Gunn, Ian Gillett and Sibun as among genuinely classy Swan teammates.

The downside, according to Giles, was that the club lacked professionalism. “Looking back, there was little direction,” he said. “Apart from anything else, we seemed to change coach just about every year. We didn’t know from one season to another who was going to be in charge and there did not seem to be any planning for the future.”

Giles sees the current Swans in an entirely different light. “Everything seems to be done so professionally,” he said. “There are plans in place, the recruiting has been excellent and there is a great sense of stability.

“It was absolutely fantastic to see the Swans win the 2005 premiership, and let’s hope there are more to follow.”