Joseph Woodger, a bricklayer from Sussex, arrived in Adelaide in 1913 with his wife Alice and two-year-old son. He was playing for the Cheltenham soccer club soon after his arrival. He switched to Port Adelaide in 1914, appearing once for the SA state team in a game against Broken Hill.
In 1915 he returned to Cheltenham, who won the league title that year, but Joe joined the AIF shortly before the end of the season. Originally an infantryman in France, he switched to the artillery in 1916.
Wounded by shellfire as the allies advanced to victory in August 1918, Joe was sent to a hospital in England where he died of influenza in November. He was 30 years old.