Goalkeeper John Bernard Bryant (John Burnett Graham) played 6 non-A internationals for Australia on its inaugural tour of New Zealand in 1922. He came up through the ranks of Brisbane City, later transferring to Latrobe. In 1920 Bryant was selected as reserve for an AIF team containing many soccer players who had seen service in the war, in a game against the visiting British navy ship Renown.
Bryant, though, was an outlier in the squad because, despite enlisting in 1916, he never left the country. In his way stood his father, who learned Bryant had enlisted under the assumed name of John Burnett Graham and claimed to be 21 rather than 19. Bryant senior promptly refused to give consent for the enlistment, and demanded his son be discharged. Before his discharge, Bryant was charged with “making false answers on attestation” and sentenced to 14 days detention.
After the war, his footballing career continued until 1929, when he finally won a premiership with Latrobe, the club’s first before dominating the league in the 1930s. Bryant married Annie Ehrlich in 1928 but died in 1934 aged 36.