One of Australian Rules football’s greatest ever players, Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer, has died today, aged 84. The Western Australian sporting icon was surrounded by family and friends when he passed away at Fiona Stanley Hospital.
Farmer, who was diagnosed with alzheimer’s when he was 60 years old, will be best remembered as a ruckman who pioneered the use of handball and whose ruckwork revolutionised the game in WA and then at Geelong, where he played in the Cats’ premiership team in 1963.
He was one of 12 original “legends” inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and was inducted into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Farmer was nominated as the first ruckman in every Team of the Century for each of the two leagues and three clubs for which he participated, as well as the Indigenous Team of the Century, in which he was named captain.
Graham Farmer will continue to be a household name in Western Australia for generations to come, after he was honoured with the Graham Farmer Freeway being named after him in 1997.
