Rodger Head

Recruited from local club Black Rock after a dominant schoolboy career at Haileybury College, Rodger Head had to overcome a false start to his VFL career before etching his name into St Kilda history. His early years at the Saints were plagued by severe leg injuries—breaking one leg in 1960, returning briefly, and then breaking the other soon after—which, combined with a star-studded defensive unit featuring Verdun Howell and Bob Murray, limited his senior opportunities until the mid-1960s. Eventually cementing a spot as a compact, strong back pocket, he became a reliable stopper tasked with nullifying the opposition's dangerous roving forwards. Head’s persistence was rewarded when he played a key role in the club's celebrated 1966 Premiership side, standing just metres away when teammate Bob Murray took the famous match-saving mark. He retired early in the 1967 season to pursue a demanding career as a stockbroker during the mining boom, later returning to Moorabbin as a board member in the 1980s.