Almanac Footy: SA Footy – Stars of the Past

 

Johnny Karney played some good football for West Torrens in the years after World War One and after he hung his boots up, he worked as a barman at the Alberton Hotel – still with enough spring in his heels to leap the bar and take charge when beer turned into bad manners. Johnny wasn’t a drinker, but he saw what it did to other people, and more than a few rowdy ones found themselves out on their tail after misjudging the resolution of the wiry old rover.

 

Aside from his command of frontier justice, Johnny was admired by the publican because his presence attracted punters keen to hear his stories of the old SANFL, especially about Port Adelaide. Some would get hot under the collar, and he would wind them up further and because they stayed on to argue, they drank more. On match days the Alberton (only a decent drop kick from the oval) overflowed, with most wanting to drink up at ‘Karney’s end’ to stir him.

 

Among the players that Johnny spoke most admirably about was South Adelaide’s Dan Moriarty with whom he shared the 1921 Magarey Medal – sort of.

 

 

Moriarty was a defender with a purity about his play, a high mark, clean hands and a strong kick. His decision making was exact, distributing the ball to the advantage of team-mates and his reputation was as an honourable competitor. ‘He was a demonstrator par excellence of the national game as it should and can be played by a gentleman,’ was how The Mail reported his best afield performance for South Australia against Victoria in 1919.

 

After the 1921 season ended, the votes were counted for the Magarey Medal. In those days the umpire awarded a single vote for the ‘fairest and most brilliant’ player on the ground. When the envelopes were opened, four players were tied on five votes: Moriarty, Karney, Charlie Adams of Port Adelaide and Norwood defender Walter ‘Wacka’ Scott. The umpires then got their heads together and voted for who was the first among equals and decided to give the gong to Moriarty.

 

It was the third consecutive Magarey Medal for Moriarty, whose brief career is surely one of the most decorated in history. His debut was the first match when the league resumed after the Great War. He missed only one in seven seasons – playing 97 of a possible 98 games before walking away from football at the age of 29. The years after he spent at the races as a turf reporter and playing golf off eight at Glenelg.

 

 

 

 

It seems amiss that such a player could shrink away. Johnny Karney’s thoughts would have been wonderful to read if they had been written down, but they weren’t. Moriarty’s towering figure is reduced to a few black-and-white photographs and scratchy reportage from the 1920s … if only someone had interviewed him to add some colour.

 

The good news is that someone did.

 

 

 

 

Bernard Whimpress in his new (and 49^th) publication has collected 92 profiles of South Australian footballers, a majority of whom he interviewed during his tenure as Editor of the Football Budget in the late 1980s. He estimates he would have interviewed 500-odd players and coaches, usually asking those exacting questions for the Player Profiles: favourite band/food/drink etc.

 

What he reveled in was the opportunity to visit older players and often spend hours listening to their memories. Over a beer, Norwood’s Alick Lill said that he had only done two major interviews in his life, the first when he won the Magarey Medal in 1925 and the second with Bernard.

 

The stories he gathered appeared in the Budget under the heading ‘Stars of the Past’ and that title is perfect for the collection that begins with John Woods who started with Norwood in 1882 and goes through to Trevor Grimwood who won the Magarey Medal with West Adelaide in 1977.

 

The interview with octogenarian Dan Moriarty, lasted more than two hours and filled in some of the colour of the time and the context of football in everyday life. By sketching their lives, Bernard gives glimpses of the social history of Australia.

 

Now back to Johnny Karney.

 

In 1997 the SANFL decided to give retrospective Magarey Medals to those players who had tied but missed out due to various accounting methods. It came too late for Karney who died in 1982, but he is now part of the only four-way tie for a Magarey Medal in league history. Would have been great fodder for a yarn down at the Alberton Hotel.

 

 

 

 

SA Footy: Stars of the Past by Bernard Whimpress can be purchased Here

 

More from Michael Sexton can be read Here.

 

 

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