Maurice Patrick Sheehy (12 June 1893 – 10 January 1961) was an Australian politician, and a member of the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Co ...

for

Melbourne Province Melbourne Province was an electorate of the Victorian Legislative Council (Australia). Melbourne Province was created in 1882 when Central Province was abolished in the redistribution of Provinces. Its area included central Melbourne, Carlto ...

. As a young man, "Maurie" Sheehy (as he was then known) was an

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 for Collingwood 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). As an older gentleman, Sheehy was a politician, better known as Patrick Sheehy.

Sports notoriety

Sheehy began his sports career at Collingwood in 1914. After just two games he crossed to Fairfield where he spent the 1915 football season. The Northcote District recruit returned to Collingwood the following year and went on to appear in four

Grand Finals Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

. A

back pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

in their 1919 premiership team, Sheehy also participated in the club's losing 1918, 1920 and 1922 Grand Final sides. He left Collingwood to coach Northcote in 1923.

Political career

Sheehy joined the Labor Party in 1911. He was a Richmond, Australia city councillor (1934–1956); and twice mayor (from 1941 to 1942 and 1951–52). Sheehy had also contested the federal seat of Kooyong as the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

candidate in 1951, losing to the incumbent

Robert Menzies The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...

. Sheehy was elected to the Victorian State Legislative Council for the seat of

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 ...

in June 1952, and served until his defeat in June 1958. He represented the Labor Party from 21 June 1952 until March 1955. When the party split in March 1955, Sheehy became a member of the Democratic Labor Party (or the

Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), formerly the Democratic Labor Party, is an Australian political party. It broke off from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as a result of the 1955 ALP split, originally under the name Australian Labor Party ...

as it was originally known) until his defeat on 20 June 1958. Sheehy was a Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works Commissioner from 1950 until 1956, and he also served for a time as a member of the Richmond Girls' Secondary School Council.

References

External links

*
Re-member – A database of all Victorian MPs since 1851
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehy, Maurie 1893 births 1961 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Collingwood Football Club players Collingwood Football Club Premiership players Northcote Football Club players Northcote Football Club coaches Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Democratic Labor Party (historical) politicians Victoria (Australia) state politicians Australian sportsperson-politicians Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) members of the Parliament of Victoria 20th-century Australian politicians One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players People from Fairfield, Victoria Politicians from Melbourne

Sports notoriety

Political career

References

Further reading

External links