Desmond Jules Healey (5 September 1927 – 18 March 2009) 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
er, who played in the
VFL/AFL
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
with the
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...
, and was also a first-grade cricketer with the Collingwood Cricket Club.
He married the daughter of
Jack Bisset.
VFL career
After spending 3 years in the reserves team, Healey finally broke into the senior side in 1948. He played every game in 1948 and missed only one in 1949 when he won interstate selection.
The combination of Healey,
Thorold Merrett and
Bill Twomey, Jr., gave Collingwood a lethal centre line. Healey was a great mark for his size and dazzled the crowd with his evasive ground work and polished skills. He always had great control of the ball and was the master of the pinpoint pass.
Healey was one of the heroes of Collingwood's 1953 Premiership victory and was rated by many as one of the best players on the ground that day. He won All-Australian selection in the same year.
Essendon's great full-forward
John Coleman once named Healey as the best wingman he had ever seen. "He is clever, has that wonderful tenacity of all good Collingwood players, and is tireless".
Healey is perhaps best known for his last moments as a League footballer. In the 1955 grand final Healey had a sickening collision with Melbourne's
Frank 'Bluey' Adams. They were both stretchered off, with Healey's nose broken in five places and his skull fractured. He never played League football again.
Post VFL
Healey was appointed as captain / coach of the
Wodonga Football Club
The Wodonga Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Bulldogs'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in the city of Wodonga, Victoria.
History
Wodonga's first recorded match was against the Albury Football Club on Saturday, ...
in 1956 and won their best and fairest award in 1957.
Healey left Wodonga and accepted a two year coaching job in
Junee
Junee () is a medium-sized town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town's prosperity and mixed services economy is based on a combination of agriculture, rail transport, light industry and government services, and in par ...
.
In 1966 he was the coach of Camberwell in the VFL. At the time he was the Sports master at the Jordanville Technical School.
[ Des Healey coach of Camberwell, Chadstone Progress, April 5,1966]
He coached the Collingwood Under 19s to the premiership in 1974.
Healey also played 52 games of senior Melbourne District Cricket with the Collingwood Cricket Club.
Footnotes
References
''Register of V.C.A. 1st XI Pennant, District & Premier Cricketers: 1889-90 to 2016-17: D to H'': Healy, Desmond Jules
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Healey, Des
Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)
Collingwood Football Club players
Collingwood Football Club premiership players
Copeland Trophy winners
All-Australians (1953–1988)
1927 births
2009 deaths
VFL/AFL premiership players