User:Pudgey/Sandbox/Dan Moriarty

Dan Moriarty

• from Australian Football HoF book, p101

A meteoric career of only five years was enough to stamp Dan Moriarty as one of South Australia's finest players. He was 24 years old before he played his first game with South Adelaide in 1919 at centre-half-back. By then he had built such a reputation that eh was asked to captain the side int he absence of the regular captain Steve McKee. His prowess at the higher level was soon apparent and he went on to win the first of his three consecutive Magarey Medals. Moriarty was always interested in football, but did not push himself forward, either at school at Christian Brothers College, or in junior football ranks. Sometimes he made up the numbers, but he was never a regular until he lined up for South Adelaide seconds for the last four matches in 1915. He played well snd also was part of a Premiership, the only one he experienced in his short career.

He finally made senior football after the interruption of war, and revealed himself as a magnificent mark and drop-kick and a tight defender who anticipated the play and was on hand to mark, punch or swoop in the ball. He did not just send the ball back, but looked upfield to deliver the ball to a team-mate. Moriarty was selected for South Australia in his first season and played 22 consecutive games for the State.

• from SANFL HoF
  • DAN MORIARTY (Deceased)
  • Inducted 2002
  • 97 games for South Adelaide, 1919 - 1925, captain 1925
  • South Adelaide best and fairest 1923
  • Played 22 consecutive matches for South Australia
  • Triple Magarey Medallist 1919, 1920 and 1921
  • Member of AFL Hall of Fame

• from Fullpointsfooty

Dan Moriarty (South Adelaide)

Dan Moriarty was an unlikely football hero. Unable to secure a regular game with anyone until he was twenty years of age he went on to become one of the greatest defenders in football history. Playing chiefly at centre half back, a position for which, at 178cm and 76 kilos, he would be considered much too small and lightweight nowadays, he excelled both in stymieing opponents and in generating attacking thrusts. Despite his lack of centimetres he was a superb aerialist, combining a gargantuan leap with formidably strong hands that seldom relinquished control of the ball once claimed. On the ground his play was characterised by excellent anticipation – a factor which he himself regarded as the single most significant reason for his success – and a resolute, single-minded decisiveness which more than made up for any alleged deficiency in pace.

Sadly, Dan Moriarty’s football career was all too brief. Prevented by the onset of the Great War from making his league debut with South Adelaide until he was in his twenty-fourth year he graced the football scene in South Australia for a mere seven seasons and fewer than 100 games. A measure of his greatness is that he was selected in every single South Australian interstate team to take the field during the first six years of his career, a total of 22 consecutive games.

Although team success continually eluded him, Dan Moriarty’s individual achievements – most famously his three consecutive Magarey Medals in 1919-20-21 – remain the stuff of legend. His selection at centre half back in South's official 'Greatest Team' was, presumably, almost automatic.