Roy Cazaly | |||
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![]() Cazaly taking a one-handed mark | |||
Personal information | |||
Full name | Roy Cazaly | ||
Nickname(s) | Cazza | ||
Date of birth | 13 January 1893 | ||
Place of birth | Albert Park, Victoria, Australia | ||
Date of death | 10 October 1963 70) | (aged||
Place of death | Lenah Valley, Tasmania, Australia | ||
Original team(s) | Middle Park | ||
Height | 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) | ||
Weight | 80 kg (176 lb) | ||
Position(s) | Ruckman | ||
Playing career1 | |||
Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
1911–20 | St Kilda | 99 (38) | |
1921–24, 1926–27 | South Melbourne | 99 (129) | |
Total | 198 (167) | ||
Representative team honours | |||
Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
Victoria | 13 (?) | ||
Tasmania | 5 (?) | ||
Coaching career3 | |||
Years | Club | Games (W–L–D) | |
1922, 1937–38 | South Melbourne | 52 (12–38–2) | |
1942–43 | Hawthorn | 30 (10–20–0) | |
1928–30 | City (NTFA) | 54 (25-27-2) | |
1932–33 | North Hobart | 37 (25-12) | |
1934–36, 1948–51 | New Town | 130 (72-56-2) | |
1941 | Camberwell | ? | |
Total | 303 (144–153–6) | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1927. 3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1943. | |||
Career highlights | |||
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Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com |
Roy Cazaly (13 January 1893 – 10 October 1963) was an Australian rules footballer who played for South Melbourne and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also represented Victoria and Tasmania in interstate football, and after his retirement as a player, turned to coaching. Known for his ruck work and high-flying marks, he inspired the common catchphrase "Up there, Cazaly!", which became a popular song of the same name, securing his place in Australian folklore.
Cazaly was one of 12 inaugural "Legends" inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Cazaly was born in Albert Park, a suburb of Melbourne, on 13 January 1893. He was the tenth child of English-born James Cazaly and his wife Elizabeth Jemima (née McNee), a midwife and herbalist from Scotland.
Cazaly learnt his football at the local state school, quickly becoming its first-choice ruckman. He tried out for VFL side Carlton Football Club in 1910, but quit the club when he injured a shoulder in a reserves match and could not get the Carlton medical staff to treat it. [1]
Cazaly crossed to fellow VFL side St Kilda and made his senior debut in 1911 during a players' strike, when many of St Kilda's regular senior players refused to play as a result of a dispute with the club's committee over dressing rooms. [2]
One of nine new players in the team, Cazaly played his only First XVIII match for St Kilda against Carlton, at Princes park, on 29 July 1911.
The other new players were: Alby Bowtell, Claude Crowl, Peter Donnelly, Alf Hammond, Otto Opelt, Rowley Smith, Tom Soutar, and Bill Ward — and, including that match, and ignoring Harrie Hattam (16 games), Bert Pierce (41 games), and Bill Woodcock (65 games), the very inexperienced team's remaining fifteen players had only played a total of 46 matches.
He played 99 matches with St Kilda.
In 1920 he left St Kilda, signing with South Melbourne. He coached that club in 1922, and won South's most consistent player award in 1926. [3]
During the depression of the early 1930s he worked on the Melbourne waterfront and played with waterside workers in a mid-week football competition.
Cazaly was famous for his ability to take spectacular marks despite his small stature and, at South Melbourne, a teammate, Fred "Skeeter" Fleiter, would often yell "Up there, Cazaly", a phrase that would become synonymous with Australian rules football. He initially developed his marking ability by jumping at a ball strung up in a shed at his home, and held his breath as he jumped, an action that he believed lifted him higher. He also possessed the capacity to kick a football over 65 metres. In 2009 The Australian nominated Cazaly as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win a Brownlow Medal. [4]
In 1928 he departed Victoria and headed for Launceston, Tasmania, before returning in 1931 to coach Preston in the Victorian Football Association.
His subsequent return to Tasmania was punctuated by short stints as non-playing coach of South Melbourne (in 1937–1938), coach of Camberwell (in 1941—at age 48, he was nominally a non-playing coach, but he did strip for a few games late in the season [5] ) and non-playing coach of Hawthorn (in 1942–1943) and as non-playing assistant coach of South in 1947.
While coaching Hawthorn, he was reported to have given the club its nickname the "Hawks" as he saw it as tougher than their original nickname the "Mayblooms".
He is known to have played 378 senior matches (including 13 interstate matches for Victoria and 5 for Tasmania). Throughout his career he stood at just 180 centimetres (5 ft 11 in) and was incredibly fit. He retired from competitive football in 1941 at the age of 48. Later, he coached (non-playing) New Town to a number of Tasmanian Football League premierships. After his retirement from football, he was involved in many business ventures before his death in Hobart on 10 October 1963. His son, Roy junior, played for New Town after World War II.
The famous line of "Up there, Cazaly" was used a battle cry by Australian forces during World War II. [6]
It is also the name of a song, released in 1979 by Mike Brady and the Two-Man Band.
Cazaly was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 as one of the inaugural twelve Legends.
Cazaly's Stadium in Cairns, Queensland, is named after Roy Cazaly. The irony being that Cazaly hated Queensland as a passion and would often tell family and friends that "it should be paved over to build a car park for the MCG." [7]
The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League, the sport's premier league.
Malcolm Jack Blight AM is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He also coached the Geelong Football Club, Adelaide Football Club and St Kilda Football Club.
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"Up There Cazaly" is 1979 song by Mike Brady, written to promote Channel Seven's coverage of the Victorian Football League (VFL). It was first performed by the Two-Man Band, a duo of Brady and Peter Sullivan, and has since become an unofficial anthem of Australian rules football.
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In the Australian state of Victoria, the sport of Australian rules football is the most popular football code. The game's popularity in Victoria stems from its origins in Melbourne in the 1850s, with the first club and the first league both based in the city. Ten of the eighteen teams participating in the Australian Football League (AFL) are based in Victoria, as a result of the league's origins as the Victorian Football League (VFL). The Melbourne Cricket Ground, with a capacity of 100,024 people, is considered the "spiritual home" of the game, and hosts the sport's largest event, the AFL Grand Final, yearly.
The 1920 Victorian Football League season was the 24th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The 1965 Victorian Football League season was the 69th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The 1933 Victorian Football League season was the 37th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The 1943 Victorian Football League season was the 47th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The 1947 Victorian Football League season was the 51st season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The 1971 Victorian Football League season was the 75th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The 1972 Victorian Football League season was the 76th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest Victorian-based team in the AFL and has won thirteen VFL/AFL premierships.
The AFL Australian Football League is the top professional Australian rules football league in the world. The league consists of eighteen teams: nine based in the city of Melbourne, one from regional Victoria, and eight based in other Australian states. The reason for this unbalanced geographic distribution lies in the history of the league, which was based solely within Victoria from the time it was established in 1897, until the time the league expanded through the addition of clubs from interstate to the existing teams starting in the 1980s; until this expansion, the league was known as the VFL (Victorian Football League).
The 1972 VFL season was the 76th season in the Victorian Football League to be contested by the Carlton Football Club.
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