Recruited from Spotswood, Sutton was a tough, nuggety footballer who embodied the club’s fighting spirit. He played as a rover and half forward, but it was as a back pocket player that he made his name. In 1950, he finished equal third in the Brownlow Medal count and won the Con Weickhardt Trophy (as it was then known) as the Bulldogs’ best and fairest player that season.

Although he served the club for many years as coach and committee man, he is perhaps best known for captaining the Bulldogs to their first VFL premiership in 1954.

After his retirement as a player, Sutton coached Footscray from 1956 until 9 July 1957, when he was unceremoniously dismissed and replaced by Ted Whitten. Sutton later returned to coach Footscray in 1967 (replacing Ted Whitten) and 1968 (after which he resigned having decided that the ever-increasing demands of coaching clashed far too much with his business of running a hotel at Yarraville).

In 1978 Sutton took over the position of President of the Footscray Football Club when Dick Collinson resigned.

In 1996 Sutton was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Sutton died in 2012 at the age of 88.