Graham William Leydin (born 21 March 1940) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played with

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). Nicknamed Yabbie, Leydin won a

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

at the Essendon Under-19s in 1958. He played mostly as a rover or at half forward and arrived at Essendon from Moonee Valley. Leydin usually came off the bench during his VFL career, which is from where he started the

1959 VFL Grand Final The 1959 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Melbourne Football Club and Essendon Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 20 September 1959. It was the 62nd annual Grand Final of the Victor ...

, which Essendon lost to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

.AFL Tables: Graham Leydin
Retrieved 5 July 2011. He made 16 appearances in each of his first two seasons but played just two games in 1961. Due to his employment, he had to move to the country in 1962 and began playing for the

Wangaratta Rovers The Wangaratta Rovers, officially known as the Wangaratta Rovers Football & Netball Club, is an Australian rules football club based in Wangaratta, Victoria and play in the Ovens & Murray Football League. Their nickname is the Hawks. Their hom ...

and he won their best and fairest in 1962.Essendon Football Club: Leydin, Graham
Retrieved 5 July 2011. He was runner up in the 1963

Ovens & Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales and the Ovens and Murray are ...

best and fairest award, the Morris Medal to former Collingwood premiership player,

Ken Bennett Kenneth Roy Bennett (born August 1, 1959) is an American businessman and politician who served as president of the Arizona Senate and served as the 19th Secretary of State of Arizona, from 2009 to 2015. He was a candidate for Governor of Arizona ...

. Leydin briefly returned to Essendon in 1964 and after adding just one more game to his VFL tally, finished the season at Brunswick. His time with Brunswick included a stint as captain and ended when he joined the

Doutta Stars The Essendon Doutta Stars Football Club is an Australian rules football club located 10 km north west of Melbourne in the suburb of Essendon, Victoria, Essendon, and affiliated with the Essendon District Football League in 1946. Histor ...

as captain-coach in 1972. He guided the Stars to a premiership in his first year and then retired as a player, but remained as coach until 1975. His coaching career took him back to Moonee Valley, where he was in charge for two seasons, before acting as senior coach of Strathmore in 1978 and 1979. Leydin coached Essendon's Under-19s side for a season in 1981 and then spent six years as a member of the

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

coaching staff, working as a junior development officer and assistant coach. He returned to Strathmore in 1988 for another two year stint as senior coach. Leydin played 53 first eleven games for North Melbourne Cricket Club from 1957/58 to 1968/69. Leydin won the Wangaratta & District Cricket Association's A. Grade batting average and aggregate in 1962/63 and 1963/64. He was a proficient cricketer in Wangaratta during the early 1960s and represented the Victorian Country Cricket League team which hosted both the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

in Shepparton in December 1962 and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

at Benalla in December 1963. CricketArchive: Other matches played by Graham Leydin (2)
Retrieved 5 July 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leydin, Graham 1940 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Essendon Football Club players Brunswick Football Club players Wangaratta Rovers Football Club players Living people