Australian football Hall of Fame 2025: Peter Darley, John Leedham, Ken Farmer, George Owens honoured
There are few bigger names in South Australian football history than Ken Farmer and Peter Darley. Now, one is an official legend and the other a Hall of Famer.
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When he found out he was getting inducted into the Australian football Hall of Fame, Peter Darley was shocked.
But for a different reason than most.
“It’s an honour obviously but I never really thought about it,” he says.
“I played the sport for sport and basically once I finished up with footy I never worried about it again.
“It has never been something that has preoccupied me.
“Having played the game has helped me in my life in terms of contacts and businesses I suppose.
“I still seem to be recognised wherever I go, which in a way is a bit embarrassing and I try to avoid it.”
Is it because he doesn’t like the attention and adulation?
EVERY INDUCTEE: TEARS, TRIUMPH AND AN ALL-TIME HOF SPEECH
“Well I don’t think it is warranted,” Darley says.
The football world disagrees when it comes to the South Adelaide great.
Darley, now 81, played 206 games for the Panthers and 13 state games before retiring in 1974 with seven best and fairests.
He captained South Australia in 1968 and 1970, and was named an all-Australian in 1969.
Yet it isn’t those honours, or even footy itself, that stand out when reflecting on his career.
“They want me to write a book and I should because I wouldn’t talk about football,” he says.
“I’d give football about three pages.
“I’d write about the life of me being a sportsman and what I was able to achieve.
“I’ve had amazing experiences around the world.”
But while football for Darley was “something to do on a Saturday”, he was and still is held in high regard as a player.
Considered the best ruckman in Australia at his peak, Darley was able to read the play beautifully and a player could single-handedly win a game.
He would dominate the ruck, be able to go around the ground and also kick goals.
“If you look back I must have had some ability, hence me getting into the Hall of Fame,” he says.
“I enjoyed the physicality, I enjoyed the contest. I hated training, I hated running up sandhills, I hated running up stairs. I hated swimming in the River Torrens.”
Given how good he was in South Australia, Victorian clubs chased him hard.
But there was no temptation to head over the border.
“Because you had to train, you had to work hard. I didn’t want to do that,” he says.
“There wasn’t too many clubs I didn’t get a phone call from or an approach from.
“But at the end of the day at a hotel on South Terrace there was Jack Dwyer, Ian Wilson, Bob Lee from West Adelaide and Graham Richmond who was the secretary of the Richmond Football Club.
“We met there and I signed up with Richmond, I don’t think it was for any money.
“It was just to stop (the approaches), they knew I was never going to go to Melbourne.”
Instead, for Darley what came out of his career was the many friendships he made.
“I’ve made friends … I have a very good relationship and friendship from so many players from my era,” he says.
“Glenelg was very fun, Port Adelaide once or twice a year I’d organise a lunch with about six or seven Port Adelaide players.
“North Adelaide coming up in a couple of weeks I have five or six players (from the Roosters) that I’ve organised.
“So I do keep in touch and that’s one thing I got out of football is friendship.”
Growing up, Darley never had any real allegiance to a club in SA.
A mate took him down to Glenelg, who weren’t interested in him.
Yet while still a schoolboy at PAC, he made his debut for Souths in 1962.
“Even though we were bottom for the first two years it was a team, which is lacking today,” he says.
But under the great Neil Kerley, the Panthers quickly rose to the top.
“He transformed a group of blokes who didn’t have a lot of ability they were average sort of players but he was able to mould us as a team,” Darley says.
“He didn’t really teach us a lot, we already knew it, but as a group we would go waterskiing together, we would go surfing together, we used to have parties because in those days you were allowed to drink in moderation.
“And he sort of kept us together as long as we provided what he required on the Saturday on the footy field.
“The club was a very good social club, we had great facilities down at St Mary’s. I had my 21st down there … it was a good era.”
After just the two games in 1962 Darley won his first Knuckey Cup for South’s best and fairest as he burst onto the SANFL scene in 1963.
In 1964 under Kerley he claimed his second Knuckey Cup and as one part of an unstoppable ruck duo with David Kantilla helped the Panthers to the flag – the last time South Adelaide has tasted premiership success.
He finished second in the Magarey Medal that year by just the two votes and was well and truly one of the top SA players on, and off, the field.
But in 1965 Darley suffered a knee injury that eventually required two cartilages taken out of it.
“I went out the bush wool-pressing,” he says.
“It was ‘well I might get back to play footy, I might not’.
“I had an orthopaedic surgeon Sir Dennis Paterson who approached me and said he had this new technique that may or may not work.
“It was a pig and poke as to whether I would get back and play. It didn’t really fuss me. If it was over it was over and I was always going to find something to do.”
But soon after he returned to footy, Kerley had left the coaching job.
Darley didn’t want it, but reluctantly took it.
He had three seasons as captain-coach where “I tried my hardest but didn’t achieve anything”.
But despite the coaching, and the cartilage removal impacting his ability to jump making his game more around bodywork, Darley continued to be one of the best players in the SANFL.
In 1968 he was SA’s best player in both of their games as captain and tied with the great Barrie Robran for the Magarey.
But he was ruled ineligible for swearing at an umpire.
“I don’t think about it until people bring it up,” he says.
“I bumped into Barrie the other day and we had a chat, he is such a lovely person.
“But there is an irony there, I shouldn’t have lost the medal. And it is best to leave it at that.”
South’s struggles continued even with a coaching change with Darley going back to being a star player, winning his sixth and seventh best and fairests in 1972 and 1973.
He continued to be a larger than life character, and with a job at Trans Australia Airlines – was able to travel around the world, working around footy.
“One year (1972) we had a bye so I flew to England because in those days all the international airlines had offices in Adelaide and I could walk in and get a ticket anywhere in the world,” he says.
“So I was going everywhere, and this year I wanted to go to the Test match at Lords.
“So I went to the Lords Test when Bob Massie took all those wickets (16) but then I came back from England in time to play footy against Glenelg and on the way back I got Errol Bungey who was an Australian lawn bowler upgraded into first class and we got very pissed on the plane.
“I’m not sure when I got back but we had to play Glenelg and in the third quarter I turned on a ripper and South Adelaide hit the front.
“I was still pissed and then in the last quarter I kept going and South Adelaide got to the stage where they couldn’t get beaten and I was buggered and they called out the stretcher to take me off the ground.
“They got the stretcher halfway off the ground and it broke so I had to get up and walk off.”
That was his lifestyle and after he hung up the boots in 1974 he continued to experience what the world had to offer.
“I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve done everything,” he says.
“I’ve travelled extensively in the world. I’ve been to every sporting event in the world.
“Superbowls, World Cup soccer in Italy, World Cup rugby in France, I’ve been to the rodeo in Calgary.
“And fortunately I did it when I did it and I could.
“I haven’t missed out on anything.”
In Adelaide he got into pubs upon his retirement and built a following with footy legends such as Ted Whitten, Ron Barassi and Kevin Murray coming to drink at his pubs, while Sid Jackson would stay with him when he came from Western Australia.
“I’m sure the named helped (with the pubs) and plus the fact that I drank and I was a bit of a larrikin,” he says.
“I’ve tried a lot of little things, I did a rodeo at Victoria Park which wasn’t all that successful.
“I started up my own cricket gear company where I was importing gear from Pakistan.
“I’ll never die wondering, I’ve had a fair dip.”
So if Darley does get around to writing a book, he certainly isn’t going to struggle for content.
‘BRADMAN OF FOOTBALL’ BECOMES A LEGEND
South Australians had plenty to boast about during the 1930s, being the adopted home state of the world’s greatest cricketer, Don Bradman.
But they argued almost as parochially that they had Australian Football’s equivalent, North Adelaide’s goalkicking colossus Ken Farmer.
As the Adelaide Mail spruiked in 1937: “South Australia can claim the two most prolific scorers in their respective sporting spheres that Australia has seen. Don Bradman is one; the other is Ken Farmer … who has surely qualified for the title “Bradman of football.”
While Victorians championed Gordon Coventry as the game’s best forward and West Australians did the same for George Doig during the same decade, Farmer’s extraordinary sharpshooting saw him re-write the game’s record books, some of which could last forever.
In what was a remarkable era of goalkickers, the North Adelaide star booted 1417 goals from 224 games from 1929 to 1941, as well as 71 goals from 17 games for South Australia.
Surprisingly, Farmer wasn’t among the inaugural members of the Australian Football Hall of Fame when it was established in 1996, which astounded those who saw him play and those who knew of his impact.
That strange oversight was amended by 1998 – 16 years after his passing in 1982, at 71 – but Farmer has now been elevated to Legend status, alongside the likes of Coventry.
It’s not hard to understand why.
Farmer averaged 6.33 goals per game – better than Peter Hudson’s VFL-AFL record of 5.64 – and he shares the SANFL record of 23 goals in a game, booted against West Torrens in his penultimate season, 1940.
He kicked a century of goals in 11 of his 13 seasons at the top level in South Australia – the only forward to achieve this in a major competition – while he also won the competition’s goalkicking award (which is now named after him) in 11 consecutive years, missing out only in his debut and final seasons.
He was never held goalless in a completed game at the top level, and he kicked 10 goals or more on 37 occasions.
Farmer’s dominance extended to state football where he averaged five goals per game for South Australia, with Victorian clubs unsuccessfully chasing his services.
“This man was a goalkicking sensation,” one of South Australia’s greatest administrators, Max Basheer, told the Adelaide Advertiser in 1998, on Farmer’s Hall of Fame elevation.
“Beyond the figures we have to appreciate this was a man who kicked goals instinctively. He had a certain presence on the football field and an uncanny ability to find the goals.”
Basheer said Farmer always cared about the impact he made for the team, having been a key member of North Adelaide’s 1930 and 1931 premiership sides as a player, before later coaching the club to two flags in 1949 and 1952 after his playing career ended.
Farmer had excelled at soccer in his early years before turning his hand – or more’s the point his boot – to Australian football.
He became obsessive in his preparation as well as a perfectionist, with his former teammate, North Adelaide’s Jeff Pash, once recalling: “We’d go to training in an era when it was a light-hearted diversion. Not Ken. He practised seriously. He had routines before anyone imagined such things at training.”
“He’d stand on the left-hand behind post, run to the centre and then kick the ball over his right shoulder. He’d train to make sure he’d kick with perfection. And he did!.”
Farmer overcame a family tragedy during his second season (1930), not long after he became the first player in SANFL history to kick a century of goals in a season.
He was on a motorcycle being driven by his brother Elliott when they collided with a lorry. Both were thrown into the air. Farmer suffered an ankle injury, but his younger sibling died later in hospital from his serious head wounds.
Such was his grief that it was thought he might not play again for the season. But just weeks later he played a part in the first of his two North Adelaide premierships as a player.
Farmer’s elevation to Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame might have taken longer than many expected, but there is no doubt his incredible record fits every criteria.
TASSIE LEGEND, TEAM-OF-CENTURY STAR HONOURED
John Leedham was universally regarded as the greatest Tasmanian footballer to never play a VFL-AFL match.
But the true mark of his influence on the game came at a representative level when he took on – and often beat – some of the country’s most respected players.
While Leedham starred at local level in 238 games for North Launceston and North Hobart between 1946 and 1959, it was his performances when representing his state which elevated his reputation at home as well as the other side of Bass Strait.
He played key roles for Tasmania at three Australian National Carnivals – as a talented teenager who had only played a handful of senior games in 1947; as a runner-up in the Tassie Medal (best player of the carnival) and a member of the inaugural All Australian side in 1953; and as a captain/coach who helped to produce shock wins over South Australia and Western Australia in 1958.
Leedham may not have always looked the part – he famously played with his socks down and was as much of a showman as a stylish player – but he was a fierce competitor who rarely lost one-on-one duels and proved to be an inspirational leader on and off the field.
He could play in a variety of roles, whether it was at centre half-forward or centre half-back, in the ruck or in the ruck-rover’s role.
Originally from Campbell Town, he debuted for North Launceston as a 17-year-old in 1946, playing 124 games, while he was captain/coach in his final season at the club in 1953.
He later moved to North Hobart in 1954, where he played a further 114 games and was coach of the club for six seasons.
In all, he played in five club premierships and three state premierships.
VFL recruiters fought hard for his services throughout his career, but he was more than content playing in his home state.
He did sign with Melbourne in early 1948, but an early season knee injury sidelined him from playing for a period so he chose to sail back to Tasmania to resume his state career.
Following his playing career, he later served as a president of North Hobart as he kept a close connection to the game throughout his life.
One of his greatest compliments came in 2004 when – as a 76-year-old – he was named as vice-captain to the legendary skipper Darrel Baldock in Tasmania’s Team of the Century.
Given Baldock’s exalted status, and the strength of that side, it was a significant honour.
Leedham was selected as ruck rover in that side, and he would also be named an icon of Tasmanian Football in 2014, six years before his death in 2020, aged 92.
Now he takes his rightful place in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
OWENS EARNS ‘LONG OVERDUE’ HALL OF FAME RECOGNITION
This year’s long overdue but well-deserved elevation of East Perth champion George Owens to the Australian Football Hall of Fame comes exactly a century after his greatest individual honour, winning the 1925 Sandover Medal.
But the man they called ‘Staunch’ — a nickname which was always appropriate, given the word’s definition of “very loyal” and “committed in attitude” – always valued team success and the collective ahead of individuality in whatever pursuit he undertook.
Owens was an undersized, dominant ruckman and occasional forward in seven premierships – including five in succession, 1919-23, 26-27 — as part of the Royals’ dynasty under legendary coach Phil Matson.
A champion player turned umpire.
— AFL (@AFL) June 10, 2025
George Owens is a WA Football great. pic.twitter.com/95FmcNgJ5H
He was one of key players in Matson’s game-changing system that helped to change the game in the west, playing 195 games with East Perth from 1917-32.
Even though he stood at only 181cm, one newspaper said of him at the time: ‘When he went aloft he seemed to hover and often left his opponents and spectators gasping with admiration … (he was) splendidly built, fast, clever in his ball-handling and quick thinking.”
Owens was hailed by Melbourne’s The Argus as the best footballer in Australia after he was judged best afield in Western Australia’s victory over Victoria in 1926, while years later Perth’s Daily Mirror described him as “the greatest exponent of the game in WA history.”
But Owens’ impact on the game went further than his outstanding playing career. Eager to give more back to the game after his retirement, he became one of the state’s most respected umpires across 135 games.
He umpired five grand finals from his seven seasons officiating in the same competition that he had once towered over a player.
Owens conceded that umpiring was even tougher than playing, once saying: “The umpire’s job is much harder because of the responsibility … the player can make 100 mistakes which are condoned, but the umpire knows all about it when he makes one.”
Owens died in 1986, aged 86, but his impact on the game as a player and later as an umpire puts him into elite company.
As the Mirror said in 1953: “Ask any of the old timers who opposed or collaborated with ‘Staunch’, they all say: ‘He just had everything’.”
Originally published as Australian football Hall of Fame 2025: Peter Darley, John Leedham, Ken Farmer, George Owens honoured
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