Australian Football

At 168cm in height and under 60kg in weight, Richard Casey was built more like a jockey than a league footballer. Nevertheless, he was an excellent player, and, perhaps out of a exaggerated desire to compensate for his diminutive stature, an excessively combative one. Indeed, so wantonly aggressive was Casey that he ran foul of the authorities on more than one occasion (he was once suspended for half a season), as well as raising the ire of the normally conservative football writers of the day.

Originally from Brunswick, Casey joined South Melbourne in 1905 and went on to play the majority of his senior career there. His biggest disappointment was almost certainly missing the 1909 Grand Final, in which South defeated Carlton, because of injury.

Casey left South Melbourne in 1912 after 112 league games. He later played briefly with Footscray and Launceston club City. In 1919, he was one of many thousands to die during that year's global influenza epidemic.

Author - John Devaney