Afforded 'Legend' status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Coventry was the first player in VFL history to achieve several significant milestones, including playing 300 career games, kicking 100 goals in a season, winning the leading goalkicker award in five consecutive years, and kicking 1000 career goals.

The three significant officials involved with that invitation, who were anticipating Collingwood's need to find a suitable replacement for the at-the-time injured Dick Lee, who was nearing the end of his career,[7] were Ernest William Copeland (1868–1947),[8] John James "Jack" Joyce (1860–1945),[9] and John James "Jack" Peppard (1878–1940).

[12] As one of Collingwood's four inexperienced players given a run that day (the others were Les Lobb, Len Ludbrooke, and Roy Outram), Gordon played his second match—again on the half-forward flank—in what was also Lee's return match, the last home-and-away round of the season against South Melbourne.

Then, just 18, and in his third match, Gordon played at centre half-forward in the Collingwood team (with Lee at full-forward) that beat Fitzroy 4.17 (41) to 3.5 (23), at a muddy, rain-sodden MCG, in the 1920 semi-final .

And then, once more at centre half-forward (with Harry Curtis replacing the injured Lee at full-forward), in the Collingwood team that beat Carlton 12.11 (83) to 8.11 (59) in the 1920 preliminary final on 25 September 1920, his nineteenth birthday.

Coventry reprised his role at centre half-forward in the team that lost to Richmond 7.10 (52) to 5.5 (35) in the 1920 grand final, kicking 3 goals in the defeat.

Unexpectedly, he was selected as a last minute replacement for Mal Seddon,[15] who had declared himself unfit to play on the morning of the match, as a consequence of the injury to his thigh that he had sustained at the preceding Tuesday's training session in a collision with Percy Rowe.

Although a very reliable right-foot kick, Coventry was equally able to use his left foot accurately and effectively when needed – see, for example, his left-foot goal under pressure for Victoria at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the 7 August 1933 match against South Australia during the 1933 ANFC Carnival.

[23] The "broad-backed and sticky-fingered" Coventry[24] did not possess the phenomenal skills of his predecessor at Collingwood, Dick Lee, or the aerial prowess of his successor, Ron Todd, but relied on tremendous strength and a vice-like grip when marking the ball, a combination that made him almost unstoppable once he had front position.

[3] Coventry retired after the 1937 season, the first player to play 300 VFL/AFL games, winning his sixth league leading goal-kicker award, and his 16th consecutive club leading goal-kicker award, a club record and five clear of Australian Football Legend and Collingwood predecessor Dick Lee.

They had four children:[39] two sons, George Gordon (b.1925)[40] and Graham (b.1945),[41] and two daughters, Betty Lois (b.1928), later Mrs. Alexander David Denney,[42] and Margaret Shirley (1930–2006), later Mrs. Charles James Banks.

Coventry died of heart disease on 7 November 1968 at his property in Diamond Creek, survived by his wife and four children.