Toast Vale Geof Motley

[Ford Fairlane]

I'll get in early, this thread is here to honour Geof Motley, one of the greatest Magpies of all, not to tee off on guys who aren't fit to tie his bootlaces.

Happy to talk about the traditional Port Adelaide of Motley's era, not those who don't live up to it.

 

[Rising Power]

Possibly one of the pioneering player agents as well, would that be correct?

 

[Doctor Feel]

It's a common trait with the real Port men.

Gosh imagine letting that attitude wane.

What is worse is how they claim it's not the SANFL anymore, but you don't need to be in the SANFL to have that ethos and attitude. That costs nothing and can apply anywhere.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[Jojay]

After his retirement Motley said: “We played on the basis that we could not possibly let down the followers of the Port Adelaide Football Club - the greatest gift we could give them was a premiership.”

My God, how far we've fallen

 

[Windy Cindy]

Never saw him play, but by all accounts he was some sort of player.

Vale

 

[VineValerian]

Elevation to AFL HoF Legend?

Would go well with Tim Evans inducted into the Hall as a general member.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Port Adelaide statement - Vale Geof Motley

The Port Adelaide Football Club mourns the passing of club legend Geof Motley.

www.portadelaidefc.com.au

After his retirement Motley said: “We played on the basis that we could not possibly let down the followers of the Port Adelaide Football Club - the greatest gift we could give them was a premiership.”

Legendary Port Adelaide player and administrator Bob McLean once described Motley as one of the fairest players he had seen.

“You name it and Geof Motley did it in a long and distinguished career with Port Adelaide,” McLean said.

“He had wonderful balance and was one of those players rarely seen on the ground. He was also an umpires’ delight, if there was such a footballer. Never was he reported, nor did he dispute the umpire’s decision, he simply got on with the game playing it hard but fairly.”

The great Fos Williams who played with and coached Motley described him as “the most reliable footballer”.

“He is the first player I think of when asked to name the player who provided confidence and loyalty at Port Adelaide,” Williams once said.

“He was a most reliable footballer whether at half-forward or half-back.”

Geof Motley
250 games 1953 to 1966
156 goals
28 State games, six State goals
Nine premierships as a player (1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965)
Four best-and-fairest awards (1958, 1959, 1963, 1965)
1964 Magarey Medallist
Captain 1959-66
Coach 1959-61
Australian Football Hall of Fame
South Australian Football Hall of Fame
Port Adelaide’s greatest team [+ Port Adelaide Hall of Fame]

 

[jac147]

I still remember the day when as a brave and perhaps cheeky kid I got his autograph in the middle of Alberton Oval. I still have it.
RIP

 

[Grave Danger]

For my dear old mum, when we arrived off the boat from the home country, Geof Motley was the epitome of an Aussie Rules footballer, with his granite jaw and beefy arms, doing ads on TV in his Port lace-up for Glen Ewin Gold Medal Jam.

 

[jac147]

For my dear old mum, when we arrived off the boat from the home country, Geof Motley was the epitome of an Aussie Rules footballer, with his granite jaw and beefy arms, doing ads on TV in his Port lace-up for Glen Ewin Gold Medal Jam.

I’ll go a bit further, Geof was the epitome of an Aussie Rules centre man as he played that position to perfection and when he was slowing down a bit, Fos found him a place in the side as a half back flanker. In the last quarter of the 1965 GF when Sturt were mounting a serious challenge he stood alone in repelling many of their forward thrusts. He played like a ’man possessed’. We got up by 3 points but because of Motley‘s effort in the last quarter it was still a memorial win and must go down as one of our best.
BTW the attendance of over 62K for that game is still an Adelaide Oval record for any football match.

 

[bomberclifford]

My late Nanna had a thing for Geof Motley when she was younger.
Her telling me that story when I was a young kid was how I become a Port supporter.
RIP Geof. Keep an eye out for Betty.

 

[Dupre]

Vale Geoff Motley; One of the best

 

[Crow till I die]

Footy rivalry aside, sad loss for the SA footy community this (although he did live to a very good age!!). Super player - tough as nails and an SA record holder with the Gowans twins with 9 flags iirc and he produced one of the most talented footy players SA has ever seen in his son Peter..the game has lost an icon today.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

"His first nine years," adds Woite, "he would finish the season playing for premierships. He wins six in a row from 1954. And then in 1960 (as playing captain-coach), it ends with a preliminary final. Geof told me he thought about quitting football - he had failed to win a premiership!"

"And I wanted to know from Geof," says Woite of his eagerness to maintain the Port Adelaide tradition built by Motley, "what motivated the Port Adelaide players of his era.

"It was simple. The fear of losing.

"If they did not play in a grand final, they thought it was the end of the world."

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Should rename this Mots's Song - When they built you brother, they broke the mold

 

[JimmyBC]

Footy rivalry aside, sad loss for the SA footy community this (although he did live to a very good age!!). Super player - tough as nails and an SA record holder with the Gowans twins with 9 flags iirc and he produced one of the most talented footy players SA has ever seen in his son Peter..the game has lost an icon today.

The Gowans twins seriously? a couple of plodders in a vastly diminished era of the comp shouldn't be uttered in the same breath as champions like Geof.

 

[Crow till I die]

The Gowans twins seriously? a couple of plodders in a vastly diminished era of the comp shouldn't be uttered in the same breath as champions like Geof.

yeah and not trying at all to take away from Geoff..but it was the 9 flags reference as those 3 are out on their own as winning more than any other players ever at SANFL level - an incredible achievement likely to never to be beaten

 

[RossFC]

 

[foxport]

At the top of the list of Port players I wished I'd seen. A few years before my time unfortunately.
RIP Geof

 

[Doctor Feel]

It actually bothers me when the club posts social media etc. like this and saying things like "the port adelaide way" like they don't just shit all over it at their first chance.

 

[Doctor Feel]

History when it conveniences them, teal when its time to be judged against our history.

 

[Jojay]

Not a mention on the AFL socials at all that I can see. Poor.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I was confused many many years ago when I would write Geoff but then would see his name in some books and then online was Geof.

Despite the condescending shit Rucci has written lately about the club, my bad about members and fans not the club admin, his article on Geoff and why the spelling, publicly at least, changed to Geof was worth a read. This is the Geoff v Geof bit at the end of the article.

One of the greatest, Geof Motley

Geof Motley is to be remembered as one of the Port Adelaide Football Club's greatest players. His achievements leave a lasting legacy as to the Port Adelaide way.

www.portadelaidefc.com.au

WHEN GEOFF BECAME GEOF

FOR all his football career - as a player and coach - he was Geoff Motley.

But from birth he was Geof Motley ... and it took a future Hall of Fame basketball journalist to note the difference during the 1970s when Motley opened his sports store on King William Street in the Adelaide city centre.

Boti Nagy tells the story on how - in his early days in journalism – he corrected a mistake that had been repeated again and again for two decades.

"I was writing a feature on the new Motley and Ebert sports store and I followed Journalism 101 by asking him how to spell his name," Nagy says. "He laughed and laughed saying I was the first journo to ever ask him and they'd been getting it wrong since Day One.

"He told me his mother loved Geoff as a name, but didn't know to spell it. So, on his birth certificate she wrote Geof," added Nagy. Motley was not aware of the "error" until he searched for his birth certificate before his marriage to Australian basketballer Gaynor Flanagan.

"I was the only person to ask and he delightedly told me the story so I had to do a breakout in The News sports pages about how this Magarey Medallist and all-time South Australian great had always had his name misspelt - until then and now forevermore!

"All it took was for me as a cadet journalist to ask him how he spelt his name. I got to know him well and he was a great man."