An apprentice-shipwright in Plymouth, playing in the Devon League for the local club, Green Waves, George Northey came to The Dell for a trial period, which he began at inside-right in a Southern League match.

Displaying a precocious knowledge of the game, and some neat touches with it, George impressed the Echo, who felt that he merited a contract.

But after a second trial match in the Western League, George opted to return to his apprenticeship and to Green Waves, for whom he scored in their moment of historic glory, when they knocked Southern League Swindon out of the FA Cup in 1904-05. Following a solitary Southern League game on loan to Plymouth later that season, the Football League now beckoned in the form of Aston Villa. George never featured in their First Division side, but Gainsborough Trinity, the team that had ended that Green Waves Cup-run, offered him a lesser option. After 22 appearances for them in Division II, he returned to Green Waves. He became a shipwright at HM Government Dockyard Devonport during WW1 and was still there in 1939.