View source for Roy Cazaly

{{Short description|Australian rules footballer (1893–1963)}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox AFL biography
| name = Roy Cazaly
| image = Roy Cazaly mark.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = Cazaly taking a one-handed mark
| fullname = Roy Cazaly
| nickname = Cazza
| birth_date = {{birth date|1893|1|13|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Albert Park, Victoria|Albert Park]], [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], Australia
| death_date = {{death date and age|1963|10|10|1893|1|13|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Lenah Valley]], [[Tasmania]], Australia
| originalteam = [[Middle Park, Victoria|Middle Park]]
| height = 180&nbsp;cm
| weight = 80&nbsp;kg
| position = [[Ruckman (Australian rules football)|Ruckman]]
| statsend = 1927
| coachstatsend = 1943
| years1 = 1911–20
| club1 = {{AFL StK}}
| games_goals1 = {{0}}99 {{0}}(38)
| years2 = 1921–24, 1926–27
| club2 = {{AFL SM}}
| games_goals2 = {{0}}99 (129)
| games_goalstotal = 198 (167)
| sooteam1 = [[Victoria Australian rules football team|Victoria]]
| soogames_goals1 = 13 (?)
| sooteam2 = [[Tasmania Australian rules football team|Tasmania]]
| soogames_goals2 = 5 (?)
| coachyears1 = 1922, 1937–38
| coachclub1 = {{AFL SM}}
| coachgames_wins1 = 52 (12–38–2)
| coachyears2 = 1942–43
| coachclub2 = {{AFL Haw}}
| coachgames_wins2 = 30 (10–20–0)
| coachyears3 = 1928–30
| coachclub3 = City ([[Northern Tasmanian Football Association (1886–1986)|NTFA]])
| coachgames_wins3 = 54 (25-27-2)
| coachyears4 = 1932–33
| coachclub4 = [[North Hobart Football Club|North Hobart]]
| coachgames_wins4 = 37 (25-12)
| coachyears5 = 1934–36, 1948–51
| coachclub5 = [[Glenorchy Football Club|New Town]]
| coachgames_wins5 = 130 (72-56-2)
| coachyears6 = 1941
| coachclub6 = [[Camberwell Football Club|Camberwell]]
| coachgames_wins6 = ?
| coachgames_winstotal = 303 (144–153–6)
| careerhighlights = * [[1924 Hobart Carnival|Australian National Football Carnival]] Championship: 1924
* [[Trevor Barker Medal|St Kilda Best and Fairest]]: 1918
* [[List of St Kilda Football Club captains|St Kilda Captain]]: 1920
* South Melbourne Most Consistent Player: 1926
* [[Australian Football Hall of Fame]] – [[Australian Football Hall of Fame#Legends|Legend Status]]
* [[Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame]]
}}

'''Roy Cazaly''' (13 January 1893 – 10 October 1963) was an [[Australian rules football]]er who played for [[Sydney Swans|South Melbourne]] and [[St Kilda Football Club|St Kilda]] in the [[Victorian Football League (1897–1989)|Victorian Football League]] (VFL). He also represented [[Victoria Australian rules football team|Victoria]] and [[Tasmania Australian rules football team|Tasmania]] in [[interstate matches in Australian rules football|interstate football]] and, after his retirement as a player, turned to coaching. Known for his ruck work and high-flying [[mark (Australian football)|marks]], he inspired the common catchphrase "Up there, Cazaly!" which, in 1979, became the title of [[Up There Cazaly|a popular song]], securing his place in [[Australian folklore]].

Cazaly was one of 12 inaugural "[[Australian Football Hall of Fame#Legends|Legends]]" inducted into the [[Australian Football Hall of Fame]].

==Family==
Cazaly was born in [[Albert Park, Victoria|Albert Park]], a suburb of [[Melbourne]], on 13 January 1893. He was the tenth child of English-born James Cazaly and his wife Elizabeth Jemima (née McNee). James Cazaly was a renowned sculler and rower in Melbourne. Just before 6 July 1878 he was eliminated in a semi-final for the sculling championship of Victoria by the eventual victor, [[Charles A. Messenger]].<ref>Argomene, The Second Match Between Christie and Messenger for £100 and the Championship of Victoria, Launceston Examiner, 11 July 1878</ref> Elizabeth was a [[midwife]] and herbalist from [[Scotland]].{{citation needed|date=August 2025}}

==Football==
Cazaly learnt his football at the local state school, quickly becoming its first-choice ruckman. He tried out for VFL side [[Carlton Football Club]] in [[1910 VFL season|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.<ref>Atkinson, p. 83.</ref>

===St Kilda===
Cazaly crossed to rival VFL side [[St Kilda Football Club|St Kilda]] and made his senior debut in [[1911 VFL season|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.<ref name="RecordR19-2011">{{Citation |title=Cazaly's Career born amid crisis |journal=AFL Record| page=22 |date=29 July 2011}}</ref>

One of nine new players in the team, Cazaly played his only First XVIII match for St Kilda [[1911 VFL season#Round 15|against Carlton, at Princes Park, on 29 July 1911]].

The other new players were: [[Alby Bowtell]], [[Claude Crowl]], [[Peter Donnelly (Australian footballer)|Peter Donnelly]], [[Alf Hammond]], [[Otto O'Pelt|Otto Opelt]], [[Rowley Smith]], [[Tom Soutar]], and [[Bill Ward (footballer, born 1891)|Bill Ward]] – and, including that match, and ignoring [[Harrie Hattam]] (16 games), [[Bert Pierce]] (41 games), and [[Bill Woodcock (footballer)|Bill Woodcock]] (65 games), the very inexperienced team's remaining fifteen players had only played a total of 46 matches.

Cazaly played 99 matches with St Kilda.

===South Melbourne===
In 1920, he left St Kilda, signing with [[Sydney Swans|South Melbourne]]. He coached that club in 1922, and won South's most consistent player award in 1926.<ref>The Argus, 14 February 1927</ref>

During the [[Great Depression|depression]] of the early 1930s, he worked on the Melbourne waterfront and played with waterside workers in a midweek football competition.

===VFL fame===
Cazaly was {{convert|180|cm|ftin}} tall, which is short for a ruckman, but his high leap made up for that, and he was incredibly fit.
He was famous for his ability to take [[spectacular mark]]s despite his relatively small stature, and South Melbourne teammates [[Fred Fleiter|Fred "Skeeter" Fleiter]] and [[Mark Tandy (footballer)|Mark "Napper" Tandy]] would simultaneously yell "Up there, Cazzer",<ref>{{cite news |first=Jack M. |last=Rohan |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article181689561 |title=Whenever He Crouched for a Spring |newspaper=[[Sporting Globe]] |issue=1335 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=11 May 1935 |accessdate=3 June 2021 |page=7 (Edition2) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> originating [[Up There Cazaly|the phrase]] that would become synonymous with Australian rules football. He 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. He also possessed the capacity to kick a football over 65&nbsp;metres.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}} In 2009, ''[[The Australian]]'' nominated Cazaly as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win the [[Brownlow Medal]].<ref>[https://archive.today/20121215184338/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/gallery/0,26637,5060661-601-6,00.html The Australian], 22 September 2009, retrieved 2009-09-22</ref>{{Failed verification|date=March 2025}} 

===Post-VFL and coaching career===
In 1928, Cazaly played for the [[South Melbourne Districts Football Club]], including in a losing [[VFL Sub-Districts]] grand final in 1928.<ref name="smdfc1939">{{cite news  |title=Annual Meeting of South District F.C. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164488229 |work=The Record |access-date=29 September 2024 |page=5 |date=25 February 1939 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref name="vafasmd">{{cite web |title=South Melbourne Districts Football Club |url=https://www.vafa.com.au/clubs/south-melbourne-districts/ |publisher=Victorian Amateur Football Association |access-date=29 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240929012207/https://www.vafa.com.au/clubs/south-melbourne-districts/ |archive-date=29 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=South Districts Defeated |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164457463 |work=The Record |access-date=29 September 2024 |page=1 |date=22 September 1928 |via=Trove}}</ref>

He departed Victoria at the end of the year and headed for [[Launceston, Tasmania]], before returning in 1931 to coach [[Northern Bullants|Preston]] in the  [[Victorian_Football_League#History|Victorian Football Association]] (VFA).

His subsequent return to Tasmania was punctuated by stints as non-playing coach of South Melbourne in 1937 and 1938, and coach of [[Camberwell Football Club|Camberwell]] . In 1941, at the age of 48, he was nominally their non-playing coach, but did don a guernsey for a few games late in the season.<ref>{{cite news |work=The Argus |location=Melbourne |title=Cazaly engaged by Hawthorn |date=22 October 1941 |page=10 |via=Trove}}</ref> He was non-playing coach of [[Hawthorn Football Club|Hawthorn]] in 1942 and 1943, and non-playing assistant coach of South Melbourne in 1947.

While coaching Hawthorn, he was reported to have given the club its nickname the "Hawks", because he saw it as providing a tougher image than their original nickname, the "Mayblooms".

==Legacy==
Cazaly is known to have played 322 premiership matches (198 in the VFL and 124 in the Tasmanian leagues), and 354 total career senior games (including 14 intrastate matches for the NTFA in Tasmania, and 18 interstate matches, 13 for Victoria and five for Tasmania). If his matches for Preston and Camberwell in the VFA are included, then Cazaly played in 343 premiership matches and 375 career senior games. Cazaly also played country football for [[Minyip]] in 1925, and in a mid-week football competition during the 1930s.

Cazaly retired from competitive football in 1941 at the age of 48. Later, he coached (non-playing) [[New Town Football Club|New Town]] to a number of [[Tasmanian Football League]] premierships. 

The famous cry "Up there, Cazaly" was used as a [[battle cry]] by Australian forces during World War II.<ref>"From 1911 to 1920 Cazaly played for St Kilda Football Club, without pay, winning the club's 'best and fairest' award in the last two seasons. In 1921 he transferred to South Melbourne, where he formed "The Terrible Trio" ruck combination with [[Fred Fleiter|'Skeeter' Fleiter]] and rover [[Mark Tandy (Australian rules footballer)|Mark Tandy]]. Although relatively shonly 5 ft 11 ins (180 cm) and 12½ stone (79 kg), Cazaly was a brilliant high-mark. He practised the skill daily, leaping for a ball suspended from the roof of a shed at his home. He could mark and turn in mid-air, land and, in a few strides, send forward a long accurate drop-kick or stab-pass. Fleiter's constant cry "Up there Cazaly" was taken up by the crowds. It entered the [[Australian idiom]], was used by infantrymen in North Africa in World War II, and became part of folk-lore" (Counihan, 1979).</ref> It is also the [[Up There Cazaly|title of a famous song]], released in 1979 by [[Mike Brady (musician)|Mike Brady]] and the [[Two-Man Band]].

After his retirement from football, Cazaly was involved in many business ventures. In later years he ran a successful physiotherapy business in Hobart which, in the years before his death, was managed by his son, also called Roy. Roy junior played for New Town FC after [[World War II]]. 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cazaly Dies At Age Of Seventy |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/104270942 |access-date=2025-03-26 |work=The Canberra Times |date=1963-10-11 |page=44 |via=Trove}}</ref>

Cazaly was inducted into the [[Australian Football Hall of Fame]] in 1996 as one of the inaugural twelve ''Legends''. In 2003, [[Cazalys Stadium]] in [[Cairns]], [[Queensland]], was named after him.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Atkinson, G. (1982) ''Everything you ever wanted to know about Australian rules football but couldn't be bothered asking'', The Five Mile Press: Melbourne. {{ISBN|0 86788 009 0}}.
*{{Cite book| first=Peter |last=FitzSimons|author-link=Peter FitzSimons | year=2006 |publisher=Harper Collins Publishers |isbn= 0-7322-8517-8 |title=Great Australian Sports Champions}}
* [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cazaly-roy-5541/text9441 Counihan, N. "Cazaly, Roy (1893–1963)", ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1977.]

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* Counihan, N. [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cazaly-roy-5541 Cazaly, Roy (1893–1963)] in Australian Dictionary of Biography <!-- Oddly, this is a different url yet appears to have the same content as the ADB entry given above under References.-->
* [http://sportandhistory.com/football/cazalycareer.html Roy Cazaly snr]

{{Australian Football Hall of Fame Legends}}
{{Tasmanian Team Of The Century}}
{{Trevor Barker Award}}
{{St Kilda Football Club captains}}
{{Sydney Swans coaches}}
{{Hawthorn Football Club coaches}}
{{Sydney leading goalkickers}}
{{1924 Victoria State Football Team}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cazaly, Roy}}
[[Category:1893 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:Australian rules footballers from Melbourne]]
[[Category:Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents]]
[[Category:Sydney Swans players]]
[[Category:Sydney Swans coaches]]
[[Category:St Kilda Football Club players]]
[[Category:Hawthorn Football Club coaches]]
[[Category:Trevor Barker Award winners]]
[[Category:Camberwell Football Club players]]
[[Category:Camberwell Football Club coaches]]
[[Category:Preston Football Club (VFA) coaches]]
[[Category:North Hobart Football Club coaches]]
[[Category:Glenorchy Football Club coaches]]
[[Category:City-South Football Club players]]
[[Category:Preston Football Club players]]
[[Category:City-South Football Club coaches]]
[[Category:Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Australian waterside workers]]
[[Category:Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:People from Albert Park, Victoria]]
[[Category:Australian people of English descent]]
[[Category:Australian people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:Sportspeople of English descent]]