Joseph Grech was perhaps not one of the most renowned members of the famous Floriana Ajax team that dominated Maltese football in the late 1940s and early 50s.
However, he was a fine footballer and surely played a big part in the successes of the team.
Born in Floriana on October 10, 1928, Grech was spotted by Ajax mentor Frankie Tabone.
The Ajax started as a youth team, taking part in the Anglo Maltese League which was organised and sponsored after the war by Meme Scicluna, of the stadium.
Later, they represented Floriana in the MFA minors league before graduating en bloc with great success to the First Division.
Grech was assigned the difficult position of centre-half in the Ajax team, a position which carried great responsibilities.
He kept the role up to 1949 when Floriana reverted to the ‘Third Back Game’. English coach, George Shaw gave the centre-half position to Tony Dalli and Grech was moved to right-half.
The half-back position fitted ‘it-Tiċi’, as Grech was known.
He could use his brains and legs and that enabled him to form a perfect link with inside-forwards Benny Camilleri and Lolly Borg.
Grech was a constructive half-back able to spray perfect passes to his wings but he was also a sound defender which made him the ideal ‘anchor’ to his more constructive wing-half partner, Tony Vella.
Between them these two fine midfielders fuelled the engine which kept the team going as it wreaked havoc among opposing defences.
By 1952, Grech had reached the peak of his career.
During this golden period in the history of Floriana FC, he helped the Greens win the league in 1949-50, 1950-51 and 1951-52. He was also in the team that won the FA Trophy and Cassar Cup in 1949-50.
Grech was an automatic choice for the National XI and represented the country in six matches against visiting teams and two matches against the Services XI.
It seemed at this point that this fine footballer would go on to win other honours with Floriana but then, like a bolt out of the blue, he left to join, of all teams, Valletta!
The Floriana supporters just could not believe it. How could a lad born and bred in Floriana abandon the club and join the ‘enemy’.
Grech’s move to City, however, only brought him bad luck.
At first, he seemed to have settled nicely in his new surroundings but on April 25, 1953 he suffered a bad injury in a league game against Ħamrun Spartans and missed the rest of the season.
It was a long and difficult recovery for Grech but the next year he was back in action.
At first, he seemed to have recovered fully but after a few games his old injury began to bother him and once again he was sidelined.
Towards the end of the competition he tried to make a comeback against Sliema but failed the test and was forced to retire.
Grech’s career was unfortunately short and plagued with injury but in the years he spent with Floriana he proved himself to be one of the best Maltese midfielders of the post-war era.