Wally May

Born into Bombers royalty as the son of dual premiership player Charlie "Chooka" May, Wally May carved out his own fearsome reputation as one of the VFL's toughest ruck-defenders during Essendon's golden post-war era. A local product recruited from the Melbourne Boys League, he became the physical backbone of the Dons' lineup, alternating between the back pocket and the ruck to provide the necessary steel for the 1949 and 1950 premiership sides. While he was often feared as an enforcer by opposition forwards—a reputation he later claimed was largely psychological bluff designed to make opponents "lose a yard"—he was also a skilled tall who finished runner-up in the club's Best and Fairest in 1951. His time at Windy Hill ended prematurely when work commitments took him to Adelaide, leading to a bitter clearance dispute that forced him to sit out the 1953 season before he resumed his career as a captain-coach for Sturt in the SANFL.