Fred Cook (Australian footballer born 1947)

Frederick William "Fred" Cook (born 16 November 1947) is a former Australian rules footballer.

He played 33 games with Footscray in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1967 until 1969 but it was in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) with Yarraville and Port Melbourne that he made his name. In his brief career with Footscray he played in defence and only kicked two goals; at Yarraville, he won the J. J. Liston Trophy playing as a ruckman and defender; then with Port Melbourne, he became one of the Association's premier forwards, leading the VFA goalkicking in five separate seasons and kicking all-time VFA career record of 1336 goals from his 300 games.

Cook grew up in Yarraville in Melbourne's inner western suburbs, and supported Footscray in the VFL. He played amateur football as a junior for the Footscray Tech Old Boys, then joined the Footscray Football Club in 1967 at age 19. In his second season, 1968, Cook played every game, primarily at centre half-back, and was already developing a reputation as one of the strongest marks in the league.

After the sixth round of the 1969 season, Cook was dropped from Footscray senior side to the reserves, along with six other players, as a disciplinary action for attending a family BBQ at former coach Charlie Sutton's house, which club secretary Jack Collins had thought would be a drunken swill, and had discouraged players from attending.

After two weeks in the reserves, Cook was encouraged to crossover to Yarraville in the VFA. The VFA had recently broken its permit agreement with the VFL, meaning that Cook did not require a clearance from Footscray to make the move; and, because the VFA lacked the restrictive player payments laws that the VFL had, Yarraville could offer Cook more money than he was then making at Footscray. In 1970, his first full season with Yarraville, he won the J. J. Liston Trophy for the VFA's best and fairest player playing as its first choice ruckman. Despite his efforts, Yarraville won only one game for the season and was relegated to Division 2, and Cook decided to transfer to Port Melbourne in 1971, where he continued as either a center half-back or a center half-forward, depending on the opposition line up.