Brian Dorman

Recruited from Merbein as a teenage prodigy, Brian "Horse" Dorman was a talented key forward whose career was defined by promise and untimely injury. He made his senior debut at just 16 years of age after the Magpies famously disguised him in an Essendon jumper during a trial to hide him from rival scouts. Standing 191cm with a powerful frame and vice-like hands, Dorman was a versatile big man capable of playing centre half-forward, full-forward, or in the ruck, eventually becoming a boarder at captain Lou Richards' hotel. Despite his potential, his time at Victoria Park was marred by misfortune; he missed Collingwood’s 1958 premiership triumph after rolling his ankle in the Semi Final, and just as he hit career-best form in 1960, he suffered a severe knee injury in the Preliminary Final that forced him into premature retirement at 23.