User:Pudgey/Sandbox/Tom MacKenzie

Tom MacKenzie

• from Australian Football Hall of Fame book, p96.

Tom Mackenzie was an outstanding and versatile rover and the SANFLs first triple Magarey Medallist. He won his first Magarey Medal during only his second year with West Torrens Football CLub in 1902.

At 175cm, Mackenzie was tall for a rover in his day. A fine athletic player, he played a double role in his first medal year as West Torrens' main defender. Throughout his 15-year career, he was a great possession getter and a fine pass, able to turn and kick with either foot. He was an accurate kick, able to pin-point a teammate.

Mackenzie was selected to represent South Australia in 1901, his fiorst year of League football, and he featured in the first of the interstate carnivals which was staged in Melbourne in 1908. He played a significant role in the 20 games he played for South Australia during his career.

Mackenzie left West Torrens for the North Adelaide Football Club in 1904 and played in two Grand Finals with his new club. He was the best on the field in North Adeliade's 1905 Premiership win. He won his second Magarey Medal in 1905, and then a remarkable third in 1906.

In 1909, Mackenzie returned to his first club, West Torrens, and two years later he was made club captain, a position he held until the conclusion of the 1913 season. World War One put an end to his football career and he served overseas with the AIF. To the alarm of family, friends and football supporters, he was reported killed during the war, but in fact survived and reurned to support West Torrens. He held a Player Life Membership of the SANFL. His service overseas during the war was responsible for his premature death in 1927 after several eyars of ill health.

• from SANFL HoF
  • TOM D MacKENZIE (Deceased)
  • Inducted 2002
  • Approximately 200 games for West Torrens and North Adelaide
  • Captain of West Torrens, 1911 - 1913
  • Member 1905 Premiership team at North Adelaide
  • Played 20 matches for South Australia
  • Triple Magarey Medallist 1902 (with West Torrens) and 1905 and 1906 (with North Adelaide)

• from Fullpointsfooty

Tom MacKenzie (West Torrens & North Adelaide)

Tom MacKenzie was the first triple Magarey Medallist, winning the award in 1902 with West Torrens, and 1905 and 1906 while playing at North Adelaide. Despite rarely training MacKenzie was 'all action' once on the field, playing with a tenacity and verve which made him, along with Tom Leahy, the most popular South Australian footballer of his day. Although primarily a rover, MacKenzie could also perform with distinction in the backlines as he possessed that classic defender's attribute of never knowing when he was beaten.

McKenzie made his league debut with West Torrens in 1901, and was selected to represent South Australia that same year. He went on to make a total of 20 state appearances.

In 1904 he switched to North, and was best afield in the red and whites' 1905 grand final defeat of Port Adelaide.

He returned to West Torrens in 1909, and was captain of the club between 1911 and 1913.

MacKenzie retired from football after the outbreak of the Great War during which he fought in Egypt and France, sustaining serious wounds from shell fire in 1916. Although he survived the war he never fully regained his health, and he died in 1927 at the comparatively young age of forty-five.