Peter Yeo was a friend who never ceased to inspire | Graham Cornes

He never had the storied career that Neville Hayes, who we also lost this week had, but they both share a place in this old footballer’s heart, writes Graham Cornes.

Peter Yeo’s funeral service was held in Melbourne last week in a beautiful Anglican church in Toorak in Victoria.

His passing, three weeks earlier in Brisbane, went mainly unnoticed here in Adelaide, save for a few lines of memoriam on the Sturt Football Club’s website.

However, old-time Port Magpie supporters will remember him from an era when football was played in black and white.

A blond, dashing wing/half-forward, he came to the club in the late 1960s – after the fabled six consecutive premierships, when Sturt was dominating the competition.

He never played in a premiership team for Port but ironically, he would go on to be part of the 1970 Sturt premiership team. His is a story of triumph then tragedy.

Peter Yeo was an outstanding junior sportsman – one of those kids who was good at everything, but his passion was football.

He came from a famous footballing background. His father, Dave, had been a star at Sturt post the Second World War.

A courageous defender, he played at centre-half-back in the South Australian team that lost to Victoria on the MCG by seven points in 1948.

His uncle, Alby Yeo, made his reputation by his longevity and his toughness.

Distinctive with his crooked nose which he never bothered to have straightened, the nuggety all-rounder, played for Glenelg and West Adelaide before venturing to Victoria with stints at Essendon, St Kilda and Richmond. He continually lowered his age, but reliable sources say he played his last league game when he was 37.

Former Port Adelaide and Sturt Football Club champion Peter Yeo died in Brisbane last month.

Like his brother Dave, he returned to the Riverland and attained legendary status playing and coaching at Barmera-Monash.

His mother and father had purchased a soldier-settlers block in the Riverland so Peter was sent to St Peter’s College in Adelaide before starting senior school.

At first he hated it immensely but sport is the great mediator.

Blond, good looking and dominant in a raft of sports, especially football, he suited the image of the glamorous college boy and was very much the schoolboy champion.

Anticipating going back to the farm, he was sent to Roseworthy Agricultural College, a move which was doomed to failure because of his severe hay fever.

However that year at Roseworthy would be pivotal in his football development.

Roseworthy fielded a team in the Gawler and Districts Football Association and not only did they win the premiership in 1966, but Yeo won the Mail Medal as the Association’s best and fairest player.

Peter Yeo in his playing days with Port Adelaide. Picture: Supplied

His father, coincidentally, had won the same award 22 years prior. Of course the league clubs then came knocking.

He had always been an avid Sturt supporter but it was the legendary Port Adelaide general manager, Bob McLean who was most persistent.

After a three-day stand-off in Barmera, he signed a three-year contract to play with Port Adelaide, although his father stipulated that he could be given an open clearance after three years.

Yeo always maintained that he was the first Australian rules footballer to be signed to a formal contract, which in hindsight seems hard to believe, but no one has ever refuted that claim so it may very well be true.

Believing such a document to be of some value, he kept it in a bank vault. One day it might be redeemed.

Despite the three-year stipulation Yeo stayed at Port for five years and 48 games but, unusually for a Port Adelaide footballer, a premiership eluded him. It’s fair to say he never settled at Port Adelaide.

The image of the glamorous college boy never quite gelled with the working class/wharfie stereotype but Port legend John Cahill remembers him with great affection.

“We were mates then and we were mates in his later tragic life”, Cahill said. “We would go skiing in the off-season.

Sturt footballer Peter Yeo at training in 1967.

Four of us – Yeoy, Trevor Obst, Ken Tierney and I would take the boat to the river.” Nevertheless, in 1970 Yeo transferred to Sturt, where he played 29 games including the 1970 premiership.

He may never have settled at Port but to the end it held a special place in his sporting heart.

Football never took complete hold of his life.

He had a flair for advertising and marketing and was the brains and inspiration behind the successful VYI’s sunglasses campaign which brought him to the attention of national advertising companies.

So he moved to Melbourne and although he played a couple of games for Melbourne, football became less of a priority.

He quickly became part of the Melbourne advertising and marketing community as well as enjoying the social scene and spending leisure days of tennis and socialising at Portsea and Sorrento.

The tragic turning point in his life came after he had moved to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Running to answer his phone, he slipped, fell, and his head crashed through the gyprock wall and he broke his neck.

He lived alone so he lay paralysed for 26 agonising hours until his visiting cousin found him. In a split-second, the accident in 2002 rendered him a quadriplegic.

Doctors were initially pessimistic about his chances of survival. Then they said he wouldn’t move his arms. But he never lost hope.

Calling on the wisdom of his first football coach, Fos Williams, who inspired the will to win, he said, “I use the same things with disability these days.”

“If you know how to win and don’t want to become a loser, you can do virtually anything.” He eventually gained the use of his arms and some limited use of fingers but he never gave up on the belief that he could walk again.

His attitude after his injury was truly inspirational. He never lost the quality of optimism, never complained, never uttered the words “why me”.

Instead, he became a fierce advocate for those with a disability. He stood for political preselection to represent those with a disability.

He took the Brisbane City Council to court for discrimination because the buses did not have restraints for wheelchair-bound passengers. (Incredibly the judge ruled against him).

He fought the federal government’s decision to exclude those over 65 from the NDIS.

He initiated the PointZero5 Spinal and Medical Research Campaign.

He was supported by generous friends who allowed him to live with care in an apartment overlooking the Brisbane River until he quietly succumbed on October 31, 21 years after his disabling accident.

His sister Pru and brother-in-law, ex-Melbourne footballer, Dr Peter Sinclair were able to facilitate his request to be buried at Sorrento and he was laid to rest several plots from Shane Warne.

Peter Yeo never had the storied football career that Neville “Chicken” Hayes, who we also lost this week had, but they both share a place in this old footballer’s heart.

Hayes who I never met, along with Rex Johns and Ian Hannaford, was a boyhood hero from the club’s golden era.

Yeo was a friend who never ceased to inspire with his courage or provoke with his creative mind. In separate ways, both will be sadly missed.