Meet our Alumni

Dr Donald Cordner has been a well-respected General Practitioner and a Brownlow Medallist. Cordner studied medicine at The University of Melbourne while also playing as an amateur for the Melbourne Football Club. He made his Club debut in the 1941 Semi-final and he was a member of the Premiership team that year. He was also a member of the Premiership team in 1948. He played 144 consecutive games between 1942 and 1950.

In 1943 he was Club Best and Fairest and in 1946 won the Brownlow Medal as the League's best player. Also Club Captain and Captain of the Victorian interstate team, Cordner was selected in Melbourne's Team of the Century in 2000 and the following year was inducted into the Club's Hall of Fame.

A highly committed Doctor, Cordner was assisting a patient with the birth of her child in the early hours of the morning of the 1950 Semi-final. After arriving to play that match without having eaten, he realised he could no longer spread his commitment between medicine and football and announced his retirement from the game.

Cordner served in his medical practice at Diamond Creek for almost 50 years. He has been involved with the local church, hospital, school and sporting clubs. He served on the Committee of the Melbourne Cricket Club for almost 30 years, for seven of which he was President. He was also Chairman of the Melbourne Grammar School Council. Cordner has recorded his memoirs in the unpublished manuscript The Most Fortunate of Men.