Vale – Rodney Maxwell Galt: Beaumaris, St Kilda & Carlton Footballer: 67 Years Old.
After completing his junior football days as a high marking 6’4” forward with the Beauy U/17 team Rod Galt was recruited to St Kilda and was one of several former junior Sharks, including Wayne Judson and David Nicholson, who were at St Kilda and vying for the honour of becoming the first Beaumaris junior to play at the elite VFL/AFL level. Gil Lockhart had already debuted at Carlton in 1966 after being a member of the ’65 BFC Senior Premiership team.
However Galty won the race in 1971 when he ran out for the Saints in round one at Kardinia Park as part of a star-studded St. Kilda team that defeated Geelong by 94 points, including Rod’s three goals on debut.
He just beat Juddy into the Saints team by five weeks and later in the season Rod & Wayne became the first two Beauy boys to play in a VFL/AFL Grand Final when they went down narrowly to Hawthorn.
Rod was an enigmatic character whose career saw several ups & downs but he finished up at the Saints after 77 games at the end of the ’74 season and then moved to Carlton where he played another 46 VFL/AFL games including several finals matches and topped the Blues goalkicking list in 1978 .
Nicknamed the ‘Spook’, Rod had an equally interesting business career with Surfing Equipment & Clothing company, Byrning Spears, which at it’s height enabled him to purchase a beachfront Gold Coast mansion for a then record $19.5 million. Rod was certainly never afraid to have a go at anything that interested him and after a colourful life there are still many at the club who fondly remember his laconic, quirky nature and ability to see life 'outside the box’.
