Southern Football League inducts one-handed Aldinga great Horace Leaker into Hall of Fame

Some footballers become bush legends because of their goalkicking exploits or for sinking a club record number of beers after a premiership. Horace Leaker earned his spot in Southern Football League folklore as the star with one hand.

Some footballers become bush legends because of their goalkicking exploits or for sinking a club record number of beers after a premiership.

Horace Leaker earned his spot in Southern Football League folklore as the star with one hand.

The dairy farmer, a tough centre half-back who played 14 SANFL games for Sturt in 1926, including its flag win, then featured in seven Aldinga premierships, sliced off one of his hands in a chaff-cutting accident in 1936.

But his career did not end there.

Instead, Leaker returned to the field the very next season and played for six more years, wearing a sock, glove, canvas sack or a bandage covering the stump where his hand had been amputated, behind his fingers.

Leaker, who eventually retired in 1946 after 226 games, cemented his place among the SFL’s greats in September when he was named in the competition’s Hall of Fame.

Willunga champion Garry “Chum” Reed remembers watching Leaker as a teenager and him being admired for soldiering on after his injury.

Aldinga’s 1934 premiership team, including Horace Leaker, before his chaff-cutting accident, in the middle row, second from right.

“He was a brilliant footballer prior to losing his hand but he played for quite a long time after that and was a very worthy opponent for a side to encounter,” Reed, now 85, recalls.

“Minus that hand was a bit of a drawback for him but he still seemed to get a lot of the ball. “He was out there for his team and what he could do for that side was like anyone else.

“Opponents would play him as an equal.

“He was respected by friend and foe, and a great guy.”

But Reed, a fellow SFL Hall of Fame member and 300-gamer at Willunga, says having one arm did not stop Leaker from giving as good as he got.

“Initially opponents of him felt sorry and gave him an easy street for a while … but it came to a point where he’d thump you just as hard with that stump as he would with his own hand,” he says with a laugh.

Another anecdote, told to the league by an ex-Willunga opponent still alive today, said Leaker could punch the ball from the backline to near the middle of the ground with his stump, or if he missed, his man would cop it.

“He was obviously a pretty tough cookie,” SFL Hall of Fame committee member Chris Leahy says.

“He was a ferocious backman.”

Leaker was born in Sellicks Hill and started at Aldinga in 1922 then played for Sturt in 1926.

Horace Leaker, pictured in the front row, third from right, with the Southern Football League’s association team in 1957 while president of the competition.

But he rejoined Aldinga after one season with the Double Blues and went on to feature in an equal-league record six consecutive SFL flags from 1927-32, as well as the southern club’s 1934 premiership.

Other career highlights are claiming three Aldinga best and fairests (1932-34), being the club’s standout player in its 1930 grand final triumph and playing seven representative matches for the league, including one as captain.

After hanging up the boots, aged 42, Leaker went on to become the league’s president for two years, in 1956-57.

Leahy, a former SFL president, says Leaker made headlines while president for telling umpires at half-time to stop favouring Willunga in a game against Aldinga.

“He said all he was doing was pointing out to the umpires that the lace on the footy was loose and it could’ve hurt somebody,” Leahy, now 80, says.

“But he resigned shortly afterwards.”

Leahy says Leaker, who died in 1970, aged 66, is a more than worthy Hall of Fame member.

“I’m not sure why we left it (Leaker’s induction) so late,” he says.

“He was a remarkable player and person.”

South Adelaide played in 1928

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