By: Sean Stevenson
JOHN Leedham is widely regarded as Tasmania's best footballer to never play in the VFL/AFL.
"The great JL'' captained Tasmania during the golden era of the 1950s, and in '53 became the first Tasmanian to win All-Australian honours.
Last year Leedham, 77, was named vice-captain of Tasmania's Team of the Century.
His record undoubtedly places him in elite company, but Leedham will not be among the new inductees to the Australian Football Hall Of Fame at a gala dinner in Melbourne on Monday, June 6.
In what can only be described as a serious dereliction of duty by the Tasmanian football community, the former North Launceston and North Hobart star has never been nominated.
This is despite the fact that any member of the public can nominate someone for the Hall of Fame simply by writing a letter to the AFL.
Six Tasmanians -- Peter Hudson, Ivor Warne Smith, Royce Hart, Darrel Baldock, Ian Stewart and Laurie Nash -- have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and Hudson and Stewart have "Legend'' status.
All six had outstanding careers in the VFL.
But a VFL/AFL career is not a prerequisite for inclusion. The Hall of Fame's selection criteria says in part:
The Australian Football Hall of Fame seeks to recognise and enshrine players, coaches, umpires, administrators and media representatives who have made significant contributions to Australian football -- at any level -- since the game's inception in 1858.
South Australia and Western Australia have been very active in lobbying for their stay-at-home greats and the Hall Of Fame now includes SA players such as John Daley, John Reedman, Thomas Mackenzie, Don Moriarty, Walter Scott, Rob Quinn, Len Fitzgerald and Lindsay Head, as well as David Christy, George Moloney, Merv McIntosh and Bill Walker from WA.
They are hardly household names on the east coast of Australia.
So is it time for Tasmania to mount a campaign of its own? One of Tasmania's super six, triple Brownlow medallist Ian Stewart, believes it is, and has no doubt Leedham would be a worthy candidate. "I think he has got the record to be included, and there are one or two others,'' he said.
"But they haven't had anyone pushing for them. JL was at least the equal of a number of interstate players who have been included without having played VFL/AFL.''
Stewart said Rex Garwood and Terry Cashion were two other Tasmanian football warriors who came to mind.
The Hall of Fame committee includes representatives from the SANFL and WAFL, but Tasmania has no formal representation.
Respected media commentator Tim Lane is one of two former Tasmanians on the committee.
The other is AFL Players' Association chief executive Brendon Gale.
But the committee is not to blame when Tasmanians such as Leedham have not even been nominated.
Lane, who hosted last year's Tasmanian Team of the Century dinner, said the stay-at-home talent Tasmania produced during the 1950s and 1960s "clearly warranted serious recognition''.
He said there had perhaps been a tendency for "everybody who follows the AFL'' to regard SA and WA football with more legitimacy because those two states now had AFL clubs.
But Lane said a nomination for Leedham, with the stamp of AFL Tasmania, would definitely be worthwhile.
The good news is that AFL Tasmania agrees. General manager Scott Wade said his organisation should be leading the charge for the recognition of Tasmanian players, and had in fact begun to do so this year by making a submission to have Baldock upgraded.
"Probably because of the parochial nature of the state we have never got together to do these sorts of things,'' Wade said.
"The great thing about the Hall of Fame is it is not too late.''
"We do need to start pushing Tasmanian football forward, because it would be fair to say as a football state we are not taken as seriously on the national front as we should be.''
Wade said Horrie Gorringe could be another player worthy of nomination, and invited the public to write to AFL Tasmania with other suggestions.
Leedham, who captained Tasmania at the 1958 Centenary Carnival when the team defeated both WA and SA, was briefly lured across Bass Strait.
In the late 1940s a 19-year-old Leedham was recruited to Melbourne - coached at the time by Frank "Checker'' Hughes.
Leedham had a written guarantee of 12 senior games in the centre, but a knee cartilage injury brought him home.
Subsequent recruiting attempts by other VFL clubs failed.
"There was no money in it at the time and you had to live in Melbourne for three months before you were allowed to play,'' he said.
While Leedham -- who remains involved in football as president of North Hobart -- has no doubt Tasmania's best of his era were as good if not better than their counterparts in other states, he does not believe he will ever be included in the Hall of Fame.
"It would be a privilege, but I have got my doubts whether I will be,'' he said.
Last Modified on 25/05/2005 11:36