23 Facts About Roy Cazaly

Roy Cazaly was an Australian rules footballer who played for South Melbourne and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League.

Roy Cazaly represented Victoria and Tasmania in interstate football and, after his retirement as a player, turned to coaching.

Roy Cazaly was one of 12 inaugural "Legends" inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Roy Cazaly was born in Albert Park, a suburb of Melbourne, on 13 January 1893.

Roy Cazaly was the tenth child of English-born James Cazaly and his wife Elizabeth Jemima.

James Roy Cazaly was a renowned sculler and rower in Melbourne.

Roy Cazaly learnt his football at the local state school, quickly becoming its first-choice ruckman.

Roy Cazaly tried out for VFL side Carlton Football Club in 1910, but quit the club when he injured a shoulder in a reserves match and could not get the Carlton medical staff to treat it.

Roy Cazaly crossed to rival VFL side St Kilda and made his senior debut in 1911 during a players' strike, when many of St Kilda's regular senior players refused to play as a result of a dispute with the club's committee over dressing rooms.

One of nine new players in the team, Roy Cazaly played his only First XVIII match for St Kilda against Carlton, at Princes Park, on 29 July 1911.

Roy Cazaly coached that club in 1922, and won South's most consistent player award in 1926.

Roy Cazaly was 180 centimetres tall, which is short for a ruckman, but his high leap made up for that, and he was incredibly fit.

Roy Cazaly initially developed his marking ability by jumping at a ball strung up in a shed at his home, and held his breath as he jumped, an action that he believed lifted him higher.

In 1928, Roy Cazaly played for the South Melbourne Districts Football Club, including in a losing VFL Sub-Districts grand final in 1928.

Roy Cazaly departed Victoria at the end of the year and headed for Launceston, Tasmania, before returning in 1931 to coach Preston in the Victorian Football Association.

Roy Cazaly was non-playing coach of Hawthorn in 1942 and 1943, and non-playing assistant coach of South Melbourne in 1947.

Roy Cazaly is known to have played 322 premiership matches, and 354 total career senior games.

Roy Cazaly played country football for Minyip in 1925, and in a mid-week football competition during the 1930s.

Roy Cazaly retired from competitive football in 1941 at the age of 48.

The famous cry "Up there, Roy Cazaly" was used as a battle cry by Australian forces during World War II.

Roy Cazaly junior played for New Town FC after World War II.

Roy Cazaly senior, known for his extraordinary fitness well into his later years, although he was in ill-health in the five years before his death on 10 October 1963, at the age of seventy, in Lenah Valley, a suburb of Hobart.

Roy Cazaly was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 as one of the inaugural twelve Legends.