First Senior Match
Recruited from the Preston Boys Club (he had been released by Collingwood to whom he was residentially bound), he played in Essendon's Thirds (under-19s), and played something like four seasons with the Seconds before becoming a regular seniors player in 1953.
He was selected as a reserve for his first senior game for Essendon. It was against Richmond at Windy Hill on Saturday 7 July 1951. Essendon won by four points: 10.14 (74) to Richmond's 10.10 (70).
He took a long time to develop, playing only six senior matches in 1951, and five in 1952.
He played in the highly talented 1952 Essendon Seconds Premiership team that beat Collingwood Seconds 7.14 (56) to 4.5 (29). All but one of the premiership team's 20 players had either already played for the Essendon Firsts or would go on to do so in the future; the team was:
Essendon | |||
---|---|---|---|
Backs | Alan Thaw | Jack Knowles | Doug Bigelow |
H/Backs | Brian Paine | John Ramsay | Bob Taylor |
Centre Line | Keith McIntosh | Hugh Morris | Alby Law |
H/Forwards | Greg Sewell | Bill Snell | Ray Martini |
Forwards | Brian Gilmore | Ken Reed | Stan Booth |
Rucks/Rover | Allan Hird (c/c) | Geoff Leek | A. Taylor |
Reserves | Mal Pascoe | Ian Monks |
Excluding the senior games that some had already played (or would go on to play) with other VFL clubs, the members of the Essendon 1952 Seconds Premiership Team played an aggregate total of 1072 senior games for Essendon Firsts.
Read more about this topic: Geoff Leek
Famous quotes containing the words senior and/or match:
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—William Shakespeare (15641616)