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An absolute legend of the game. Polly Farmer died at Fiona Stanley Hospital last night. Condolences to his family.

Rest In Peace, Polly, and commiserations to the Farmer family.
I never saw Polly play, but he was certainly a trailblazer in terms of how the game was played and an inspiration to Indigenous footballers.

Yep...ditto to all of the above. An absolute legend of the game and singlehandedly changed ruck work for ever.

I listened to part of an interview with former WP player David Dyson recently who played with and under Polly as the coach. He described Polly’s speeches as Churchill like. I recall maybe late 80’s early 90’s hearing him talk on radio and his insight into the game was as good if not greater than any and if he had any ego he probably would have stayed in the game a lot longer as a coach or commentator. He was without a doubt an under utilised resource.

What a legend. Name another footballer in the country that has a freeway named after him? Well done to whichever government it was that gave him that honour. Probably the Richard Court government from memory.

Ditto from me, I did see the great man play when he was captain coaching WP, took them to flags in 69 & 71 I think.

When the Vic's speak about a WA footballer the way they did about Polly then you know he was one of the greatest of all time.

DD wrote: I listened to part of an interview with former WP player David Dyson recently who played with and under Polly as the coach. He described Polly’s speeches as Churchill like. I recall maybe late 80’s early 90’s hearing him talk on radio and his insight into the game was as good if not greater than any and if he had any ego he probably would have stayed in the game a lot longer as a coach or commentator. He was without a doubt an under utilised resource.

What a legend. Name another footballer in the country that has a freeway named after him? Well done to whichever government it was that gave him that honour. Probably the Richard Court government from memory.

There's Haydn Bunton Drive DD...which is probably appropriate as Bunts was a fair bit shorter than Polly.

An icon of the game - quite possibly the original Indigenous trailblazer and an inspiration for a wave of extremely gifted footballers that followed in his footsteps
Pol will be forever missed but never forgotten given his stellar career & achievements
The Father of the long handball
Rest gently fella you absolute champion

A good interview with Graham Farmer here
Most sad upon hearing the news this morning. One of the true legends.
May he rest in peace.

RIP Polly and condolences to the Farmer family.
A true champion of the game and a true gentleman.

My most striking (excuse the pun) memory of Polly was in the 1971 GF, when he was captain coach of West Perth.

In the twilight of his career, Polly was pretty rotund, and wasn't running around too much. However, at the first bounce he ran straight through the EP ruckman, and continued with that controlled aggression (bordering on brutality) for the rest of the game.

The final score tells the story.