Australian Football

Socks at half mast, and with a characteristic angular gait that suggested he had difficulty running in a straight line Brian Colbey scarcely looked like a league footballer, let alone a very good one. Other players - Kevin Murray and Martin Leslie spring to mind - have afforded similarly less than conclusive overt evidence of their prowess, but in football, as in life, looks can be deceptive.

Tough, resilient and unrelenting, Colbey was a key fixture across half back in Neil Kerley’s powerful Glenelg sides of the late 1960s and early ‘70s. He played a total of 210 SANFL games for the Tigers, plus 11 for the state, between 1966 and 1976. A member of the Bays’ 1973 Grand Final winning team against North Adelaide, another career highlight came in 1969 with selection in the All Australian team after the Adelaide carnival.

Author - John Devaney