Ian Lawson McKay (9 March 1923 – 3 April 2010) was an
Australian rules footballer who played with
North Adelaide
North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands.
History
Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colo ...
in the
SANFL
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as the ...
. He played a total of 164 games for North Adelaide.
Recruited from Sydney club
St George where he had played during his war service, McKay joined North Adelaide in 1946 and although he started as a centre half back he played at fullback from 1949 until his retirement. McKay was selected to the South Australian interstate side in his debut season, the first of 14 times that he would represent his state. He won the
Magarey Medal
The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Will ...
in 1950, the first fullback to win the award. He captained North Adelaide for eight seasons and led them to premierships in 1949 and 1952, also captaining South Australia twice. In 2000 he was named North Adelaide Team of The Century captain in a team that included
Tom Leahy,
Ken Farmer
Kenneth William George Farmer (25 July 1910 – 5 March 1982) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the North Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).
Dubbed the 'Bradman of football' in So ...
,
Barrie Robran,
Don Lindner
Donald Lindner (16 February 1935 – 31 December 2008) was an Australian rules footballer who played with North Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He is the centre half-forward in North Adelaide's official Team ...
,
Darren Jarman
Darren Robert Jarman (born 28 January 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and for the North Adelaide Football Club in the ...
and
Andrew Jarman
Andrew Newton Jarman (born 14 January 1966) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the North Adelaide Football Club and Norwood Football Clu ...
.
Ian was perhaps the only full back to have the great
John Coleman's measure. Prior to Coleman's debut McKay had already proven himself against the "Big V", being chosen by the Victorian selectors as South Australia's best player in the 1946 clash between the states and thus being awarded the O'Halloran Trophy. Coleman and McKay were opposed 4 times and McKay kept Coleman to a tally of 10 goals in the four games at an average of 2.5 goals per game. McKay had the pace to go with Coleman and as freakish as Coleman's marking was McKay probably had an even better leap. No less a judge than
Fos Williams
Foster Neil "Fos" Williams AM (21 February 1922 – 1 September 2001) was a leading Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the Port Adelaide and West Adelaide Football Clubs and coached South Adelaide in the South Australian ...
stated that one of the main reasons South Australia defeated Victoria in both 1951 and 1952 was McKay's brilliance in curtailing Coleman.
In 1976 respected journalists
Mike Coward and
Geoff Kingston named South Australia's greatest 40 players of the first 100 years of SANFL football. They rated McKay as the 9th greatest SA footballer of the first 100 years. He was an inaugural member of the SANFL Hall of Fame yet incredibly he is still not in the AFL Hall of Fame.
Further in 1977,
Merv Agars named South Australia's greatest team of the first 100 years and McKay was named full back.
Prior to official All Australian teams being selected the Sporting Life magazine annually chose an All Australian team and McKay was named full back in both 1951 and 1952. There teams were officially recognised by the AFL for a time.
McKay was also notable for an overhead mark he took in the 1952 SANFL Grand Final against
Norwood. The photograph of the mark captured McKay's dramatic leap over Norwood's Pat Hall and was reputedly distributed around the world.
References
External links
*
Ian McKay's obituaryJohn Coleman's nemesis
1923 births
2010 deaths
North Adelaide Football Club players
St George AFC players
Magarey Medal winners
Australian rules footballers from South Australia
South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Australian military personnel of World War II
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