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Elkin Reilly (2 April 1939 – 3 September 2020) was a former Australian rules footballer, representing South Melbourne Football Club 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). I ...
(VFL). He was one of the earlier
Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...
s to play in the VFL. An
Alyawarra The Alyawarre, also spelt Alyawarr and also known as the Iliaura, are an Aboriginal Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. The Alyawarre are made up of roughly 1,200 associated peoples and actively engage in local tra ...
man, Reilly was born in
Alpurrurulam Alpurrurulam, from the original Aboriginal name ''Ilperrelhelame'', also known as Lake Nash, is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located in the territory's east about south-east of the territory capital of Darwin and about e ...
on the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...
/
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
border and, in line with government policy of the day, was kidnapped from his mother and taken to
Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
hospital. At the hospital, Reilly was considered too ill to be placed with the other children and the doctor on duty, Dr Pat Reilly, agreed to adopt him and he and his wife Joan successfully applied to the Department of Native Affairs to remove Reilly from the Northern Territory in order to take him back to
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...
. Reilly attended the exclusive
Rostrevor College , motto_translation = , coordinates = , established = , type = Independent primary and secondary day and boarding , gender = Boys , religious_affiliation = Catho ...
in Adelaide and became a leading ruckman who after leaving Rostrevor played in various country leagues. Reilly was a star in the country and won two Mail Medals in a row for being the best and fairest player in 1959 in the Southern Yorke Peninsula Football League while playing for Minlaton Football Club and in 1960 in the Upper Murray Riverland Football League with Barmera-Monash Football Club. Recruited by South Melbourne from
Sunraysia Football League The Sunraysia Football and Netball League, also known simply as the SFNL is an Australian rules league in the Sunraysia district of north-west Victoria and south-west New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Aust ...
club Wentworth in
1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wo ...
, Reilly made his senior VFL debut in Round Five that season against
Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the ...
at South Melbourne's home ground, the
Lake Oval Lakeside Stadium is an Australian sports arena in the South Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. Comprising an athletics track and soccer stadium, it currently serves as the home ground and administrative base for association football club Sou ...
. Over five seasons, Reilly played 51 games for South Melbourne, teaming with South's champion rover
Bob Skilton Robert John "Bob" Skilton (born 8 November 1938) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Playing as a rover, Skilton is one of only four players to have won the Brownlow Medal three tim ...
to win matches "in an otherwise bleak period for the club",Main, p. 199. with one sports reporter claiming "Elkin Reilly is not a brilliant player but his spoiling tactics are an important feature of South's play." A ruptured appendix ended Reilly's VFL career in
1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo is ...
and he moved to
Cohuna Cohuna is a town situated north of Melbourne, on the Murray Valley Highway, in northern Victoria, Australia. At the , Cohuna had a population of 2,428. History A post office opened in the area on 18 September 1875, known as Mologa until 187 ...
in country Victoria to coach. Rostrevor College has honoured Reilly by naming a hall and a scholarship for Indigenous students for him.


Sources

* Main, J. (2009) ''In the Blood'', BAS Publishing: Melbourne. ISBN 9 78192149601 1. * Tatz, C. & Tatz, P. (2000) ''Black Gold'', Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra. .


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reilly, Elkin 1939 births 2020 deaths People educated at Rostrevor College Australian rules footballers from the Northern Territory Sydney Swans players Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football