Maurice Edward Sheahan (24 December 1905 – 17 September 1956) 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 between 1929 and 1936 for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

Family

His son,

John Sheahan John Sheahan (born 19 May 1939) is an Irish musician and composer. He joined The Dubliners in 1964 and played with them until 2012 when The Dubliners' name was retired following the death of founding member Barney McKenna. Sheahan is the last ...

(b.1942), played seventeen games for Richmond in the early and mid-1960s.

Football

Originally from Ballarat, Sheahan was already twenty-three when he joined the Tigers, but his hard and tough defensive play transformed a team renowned for its attacking power in the 1920s into a rock-like defensive unit that defied the powerful attacks of Collingwood and later

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 ...

to make the Grand Final every year from 1931 to 1934 and have the meanest defence every year from 1932 to 1935. Sheahan was a member of Richmond's legendary "''Three Musketeers''" backline of Bolger, Sheahan and

O'Neill The O'Neill dynasty ( Irish: ''Ó Néill'') are a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin that held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As kings of Cenél nEógain, they were historically one of the most prominent family of the Nor ...

. He played in the premiership teams of 1932 and 1934 as well as the losing

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final 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. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

sides of 1929 and 1933. In an incident that was remembered for decades after it occurred, Sheahan was famously penalised for time-wasting in the dying minutes of the close top-of-the-ladder – match in Round 8, 1933 after setting up to kick in after a behind with a

place kick The place kick is a type of kicking play commonly used in American football, association football, association football (soccer), Canadian football, rugby league, and rugby union. It was historically used in Australian rules football, but it was ...

– despite the fact that time was off until the kick-in was executed. South Melbourne's subsequent goal narrowed the deficit to five points, but the final bell sounded soon afterwards and Richmond still won the game. Injuries, however, affected Sheahan's career quite badly: he was kept out of seven games early in the 1931 season by a broken arm and weight problems caused Sheahan to lose form so badly that he was actually ''omitted'' from the club's two 1931 finals. He recovered well until 1936, when Richmond omitted Sheahan for the third game upon his announcement he would not play against Carlton in the fourth round due to his marriage. Sheahan never recovered his form and retired at the end of the season, but was awarded Life Membership of the

in 1938 and went on to serve as the Club Secretary in 1939.

Death

Sheahan died at

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

, Victoria, on 17 September 1956.Bereavement Cards: Sheahan, ''The Argus'', (Wednesday, 26 September 1956), p.14.
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Notes

References

* Hogan P: ''The Tigers of Old: A complete History of Every Player to Represent the Richmond Football Club between 1908 and 1996'', Richmond FC, (Melbourne), 1996. * Ross, J. (ed), ''100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported'', Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheahan, Maurie 1905 births 1956 deaths Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents South Ballarat Football Club players Richmond Football Club players Richmond Football Club premiership players VFL/AFL premiership players 20th-century Australian sportsmen