REGARDED as one of the Norwood Football Club’s greatest ever forwards, Roy “Cool Alec” Bent was born in Broken Hill, starting his football at the North Broken Hill Football Club.
He started in the North reserves in 1918, progressing to the seniors in the second half of the 1919 season and continued in 1920, earning the nickname.
Bent was the first of the SANFL goal kicking aces to emerge between the two World Wars, followed by North Adelaide legend Ken Farmer, another Broken Hill footballer Glenelg’s Jack Owens, South Adelaide’s Diddy Munro, and P.T. “Bo” Morton at Sturt.
Initially joining the Redlegs and playing with the Norwood B team in 1921, after just two games Bent made his SANFL debut against West Torrens at the Hindmarsh ground.
Beginning his league career as a half forward/rover, in the final six games of that season he was named at full forward, starting with a clash against Glenelg.
He slotted through seven majors and never looked back.
Bent played in the grand final in his first year and at full forward in that decider he kicked Norwood’s three goals in its narrow loss to Port Adelaide.
Regarded as the first of the star full forwards after World War I, Bent was described slight in stature, quick, elusive and very clever at ground level.
He generally stayed close to the goal square and used drop kicks for most of his shots at goal.
A left footer, Bent had uncanny accuracy with his attempts from difficult angles, either from set shots or crafty snaps.
Bent was a member of Norwood’s flag winning side where they defeated West Adelaide in 1922.
In the 9.7 (61) to 2.16 (28) win, Bent, a noted big time performer, kicked three goals and was high in the best players in the ’22 decider.
In the last minor round game in 1923, he was controversially suspended after an incident against South Adelaide.
Bent received a six-match holiday for having forcibly thrown the ball to the boundary umpire, after Bent had been adjudged to have gone out of the field of play.
It was reported the boundary umpire suffered a “bruised chest”.
The claim was made by the central umpire and the suspension cost Bent the opportunity to play in back-to-back premierships.
On grand final day at the Adelaide Oval, a group called the “Wallaby Club sympathisers” presented him with a large leather medal, five inches in diameter.
The medal had a drawing inscribed on the face of it, representing a footballer in the act of throwing a ball at another figure.
The suspension was later reduced to three matches, resulting in Bent also missing round 1 of the 1924 season.
He first represented South Australia against Victoria and Western Australia in 1923, playing a total of 17 state games over the following five years.
Bent kicked a career-high 12 goals in a state game against Queensland in the Hobart Carnival of 1924.
In that season, he also kicked 10 goals from 11 attempts, against West Torrens in the first semi-final.
One of his true marquee performances was when Bent famously kicked the match winning goal in the 1925 grand final.
Norwood trailed by five points late in the last quarter when the ball came out to Bent, who snapped at goal and converted from a long way out, winning by one point, 8.4 (52) to 7.9 (51).
He kicked six out of Norwood’s eight goals in the contest.
He established what was then the SANFL state record, kicking 65 goals for the year.
In 1926, he kicked 11 majors against Glenelg in the last minor round game of the season.
At the age 26 and at the height of his powers, Bent had an accident in December of that year, suffering concussion and other head injuries.
While on a city bound tramcar, he was travelling to Adelaide Oval to watch an interstate cricket match.
The vehicle was proceeding through the East Parklands when Bent, who was standing in the gangway, was leaning over the rail.
The back of his head hit a post, inflicting a deep wound and rendering him unconscious — he was admitted to hospital in a serious condition.
Although he returned to football in 1927, he only played four games before deciding to retire mid-season due to poor form.
He returned again in 1928 and played another six games.
That year, he also played seven games with the Norwood reserves, heading the goal kicking with 32 majors.
Bent crammed many highlights especially into the first six of his eight seasons with the Norwood Football Club and was a Norwood Hall of Fame inductee.
Despite a relatively short career, restricted by injury and suspension, he was the Redlegs’ leading goal kicker on five occasions, and topped the SANFL goal kicking four times.
Retiring in Mount Gambier, Bent died in a car accident in 1975, returning home from a trip to Broken Hill.
