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Arthur Coghlan

Australian footballer (1902-1959)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ4798299 ↗
Source-derived summary

Arthur Emmett "Bull" Coghlan (16 August 1902 – 8 June 1959) was an Australian rules footballer, who played for and coached Geelong in the VFL.

Family

His brother, Davitt Coghlan, played with Fitzroy in the VFL.

Football

Geelong's Toora recruit was a hard hitting ruckman but could also play in key positions.

He missed out on their 1925 premiership after being suspended for the remainder of 1925 and all of 1926 for escalating an all-in brawl that involved players and team officials. North Melbourne's Fred Rutley was suspended for life for starting the brawl.

In early 1928, Coghlan was appointed as captain-coach of Nhill Football Club, but his clearance was not approved by Geelong.

In 1929, he was appointed captain-coach and in his second season in this role steered Geelong to a Grand Final. They lost the match to Collingwood by 30 points but he played in a premiership the following season, albeit this time as neither captain nor coach.

He played his final game in 1932 and in 1933 became the non-playing coach of Geelong, making it all the way to the Preliminary Final in both of his two seasons.

Editorial summary

“Arthur Coghlan” enters the record as australian footballer (1902-1959). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arthur, Coghlan and Australian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1902, 1959, 1925, 1926—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1902-08-16. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Arthur, Coghlan and Australian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Arthur Coghlan” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Arthur, Coghlan and Australian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4798299. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1902, 1959, 1925 and 1926.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Arthur Coghlan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Arthur Coghlan primary sources, Arthur Coghlan archive and Arthur research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Arthur Coghlan”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Arthur Coghlan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.