Australian Football

A player of great versatility, commitment and skill, Lindsay Backman became South Adelaide’s first 200 game footballer in 1972 after a career that spanned the club’s glory days under Neil Kerley and the onset of the subsequent sad demise from which it has so far failed fully to recover. After an outstanding junior career which culminated in his winning the 1960 McCallum Medal for best and fairest in the SANFL’s Colts competition, Backman made his league debut in 1961. Belying his name, Backman was a forward early in his career, and later alternated between the forward lines and the centre, in which latter position he was among the best players afield as the Panthers overcame both the odds and Port Adelaide in the 1964 grand final.

During the interval between the 1969 and 1970 football seasons Backman bulked up some 6kg to about 86kg which prompted coach Jimmy Deane to use him as a run-on ruckman. It was a move which succeeded spectacularly as Backman, who also assumed South’s captaincy, enjoyed easily his best season in football, representing South Australia for the first (and only) time, winning the Knuckey Cup as the club’s best and fairest player, and earning outright favouritism for the Magarey Medal on the strength of his virtual clean sweep of the season’s major media awards. In the event, North Adelaide’s Barrie Robran won the Magarey Medal, with Backman 11 votes adrift in sixth place, but in the opinion of the majority of impartial observers it was Backman who had undeniably been the season’s outstanding performer.

Well balanced, safe overhead, sure at ground level, extremely pacy, and a superb kick, especially with his favoured left foot, Backman finally retired from league football with 203 games to his credit. He won South Adelaide’s goal kicking award on five occasions and the Knuckey Cup once, and is a member of the club’s official ‘Greatest Team’.

Author - John Devaney