TOM LEAHY GIANT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

years and four months old when chosen by West Adelaide to make his debut on May 27, 1905, against Port Adelaide.

In that first season, he was able to fit five league games around his commitments with the school first 18, but still rated a mention in The Register ’s end-of-season review as already one of the best followers in the competition.

In 1906, he played all 12 club matches and won the best and fairest, as well making his state debut and starting an unrivalled career at that level.

In Leahy’s era, he played 31 of a possible 32 state games (missing only one for a family commitment), while guiding West Adelaide up the ladder.

From a winless season in 1906, his influence saw West Adelaide as premier by 1908, as well as Champion of Australia, defeating Carlton at Adelaide Oval by 19 points the week after both clubs took part in their respective Grand Finals.

Leahy was SA’s star in the first Australian Football Carnival of 1908, which took place in Melbourne, recognised by the judges of the time as the key player for his team.

Fact File

Club: West Adelaide, North Adelaide

Born: January 13, 1888

Recruited from: Christian Brothers College

Playing career: 1905-21

Games: 169 (West Adel 58, 1905-09; North Adel 111, 1910-15, 1919-21)

Goals: 78 (West Adel 18; North Adel 60)

Player honours: Magarey Medal 1913; North Adel best and fairest 1911, 1914, 1919; West Adel premierships 1908, 1909, North Adel premiership 1920; North Adel captain 1915, 1919-21; 31 games for SA; South Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Coaching record: Norwood 1922-24 (premierships 1922, 1923).

The big men of football command a special lore in the history of the game. From the days of ‘Polly’ Farmer and John Nicholls and their epic battles at state level through to the modern greats such as Simon Madden and Dean Cox, a dominant ruckman will always be the centrepiece of a team, taking control in the middle from the very start of a game.

For those blessed with height and power beyond their playing peers, a ruckman’s craft, his build, his leadership or his aggression and skill will provide both inspiration and intimidation in equal measure.

The induction of Tom Leahy into the Australian Football Hall of Fame recognises the man seen as the great ruckman of the early part of the 20th century – a dominant figure in the SANFL and a powerhouse at state level when that was the pinnacle of the game.

He is still adjudged by historians in South Australia as the best ruckman produced in the state – a long overdue acknowledgement from his era of shorter seasons and a full working life from Monday to Friday.

A schoolboy prodigy at Christian Brothers College, he was just 17

“T. Leahy, the most solid ruckman the state has seen for a long time, used as much brains as strength,” according to a report in The Evening Journal on June 28.

Leahy led Westies to back-to-back premierships in 1909 before the pinnacle for SA state football in 1911 – the only national carnival won in its history – a competition invariably dominated by Victoria despite being rotated every three to four seasons around the football map of Australia.

While SA teams in the 1980s and 1990s were crowned as national champions in that era of Tuesday night state games, only the 1911 Croweater team found ultimate success through the heavy workload of four or five games against all other competing states in a 10-to-12-day period.

Leahy featured high in the state’s best players in all four of its wins and was singled out for special mention by captain Bert Renfrey after the historic victory over Victoria in the final.

“l reckon our win was due more than anything to the ruckwork of Tom Leahy … of course, both our rucks beat their opponents,” Renfrey said in The Register on August 8, 1911.

In 1913, after finishing runner-up three times in the Magarey Medal, he finally claimed the competition’s highest individual award while leading North Adelaide into the Grand Final against eventual premier Port Adelaide.

World War I saw football cease for Leahy for three years in the prime of his career, before the SANFL resumed in 1919 and he was immediately named captain of North Adelaide.

After a tight loss in that year’s Grand Final to Sturt, his work in the ruck saw redemption the following year in 1920, with his performance again being one of the key reasons for the Roosters’ success, and the third premiership of Leahy’s career.

“T. Leahy was the hero of the match. He has seldom played better football. The more the need for good work, the better he is. He captained his team well,” the Express and Telegraph reported on September 23.

As captain, he led SA to a rare MCG win over Victoria in 1920 and was also skipper for the trip to Perth in 1921 (his fourth selection in a Carnival team).

While big and strong, he was known as unfailingly fair, but some targeting off the ball in the 1921 Carnival game against Victoria left him battered and bruised, knowing he was coming to the end of a stellar career.

Upon retirement before the start of the 1922 season, he accepted the offer to coach Norwood and immediately led his new club to back-to-back flags in 1922-23, before standing down at the end of 1924 due to health reasons.

Post football, his contribution to the game was just as significant through the next four decades. He served on the Tribunal, helped form the Past Players and Officials Association and worked at Football House for two decades.

At his death on May 7, 1964, Leahy had given the best part of 60 years to the game.

More than a decade after his death, in August 1976, Advertiser football writers Mike Coward and Geoff Kingston listed the best 40 footballers to play in South Australia to that point.

Leahy was at No. 5, with only multiple Margarey medallists Barrie Robran, Russell Ebert, Len Fitzgerald and Dan Moriarty ahead of him.

NICK HAINES