Geoff Leek
| Geoff Leek | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Personal information | |||
| Date of birth | 18 February 1932 | ||
| Date of death | 21 February 2008 (aged 76) | ||
| Place of death | East Malvern | ||
| Original team(s) | Preston Boys Club | ||
| Debut | 7 July 1951, Essendon vs. Richmond, at Windy Hill, Essendon |
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| Height | 194 cm (6 ft 4 in) | ||
| Weight | 96 kg (212 lb) | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1951–1962 | Essendon | 191 (98) | |
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1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1962.
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| Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com | |||
Geoff Leek (18 February 1932 – 21 February 2008) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the VFL from 1951 to 1962.
Recruited from the Preston Boys Club (he had been released by Collingwood to whom he was residentially bound), he played in Essendon's Thirds (under-19s), and played something like four seasons with the Seconds before becoming a regular seniors player in 1953.
He was selected as a reserve for his first senior game for Essendon. It was against Richmond at Windy Hill on Saturday 7 July 1951. Essendon won by four points: 10.14 (74) to Richmond's 10.10 (70).
He took a long time to develop, playing only six senior matches in 1951, and five in 1952.
He played in the highly talented 1952 Essendon Seconds Premiership team that beat Collingwood Seconds 7.14 (56) to 4.5 (29). All but one of the premiership team's 20 players had either already played for the Essendon Firsts or would go on to do so in the future; the team was:
Excluding the senior games that some had already played (or would go on to play) with other VFL clubs, the members of the Essendon 1952 Seconds Premiership Team played an aggregate total of 1072 senior games for Essendon Firsts.
He eventually went on to play 191 senior games for Essendon (including 70 consecutive games between 1956 and 1960), and score 98 goals in his senior career.
Although possessed of great speed across the ground, Leek was an ungainly ruckman with great tenacity and enormous physical strength and, despite his atrocious kicking in front of goals (he was a left-foot kick, capable of kicking long distances, but was rarely accurate), he became a regular in the Essendon senior sides of the 1950s.
He was a beautiful palmer of the ball; and towards the end of his career, as Leek's skills and knowledge of ruck play developed, and he learned how to cooperate with ruck-rover Hugh Mitchell, and as he took over the responsibilities of the first ruck from John Gill, the club's fortunes began to rise as a real force.
He was selected in the Victorian representative team that played four matches in the Australian National Football Council's (ANFC) Centenary Carnival held in Melbourne in 1958.
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