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Perth legend, Terry Moriarty was one of the toughest, shrewdist, and closest checking half backs of the WANFL in the forties and fifties, and was best known for his dependability and groundplay, rather than spectacular marking. Yet it was early in his career that he was written up in the Sydney press as a high flyer. “It was during the war, when I was stationed in Sydney, and I put on the boots for South Sydney,” he laughed. “I was jostling with an opposition player, when my knee accidently contacted this bloke's shoulder. He was a fair sized feller, and next thing I knew I was thrown about ten feet in the air. In the meantime, the ball had gone further afield and was about to be booted back to our vicinity. As I was still airborne, it somehow landed in my arms, and I was awarded the “mark of the day.”  Terry Moriarty went on to play 253 games for Perth, all in defence, and is still the club's longest serving player. He represented Western Australia fourteen times, and, in the last of them, in 1954, had the wood over Collingwood champion Bob Rose, subsequently being named as one of Western Australia's best. The newspaper of the day reported that Terry had “held Bob Rose to a very ordinary game.”  A product of the Victoria Park juniors in the Temperance League, Moriarty also played with St Patrick's School as a rover, before exploding onto the scene at Perth in 1942, in the under eighteen competition that took the place of open age football during the war years. He won Perth's fairest and best in his first two years there, capping it off with a Sandover Medal in 1943, before joining the Army that year. Resuming with the Redlegs again in 1946, after the reintroduction of full League competition, Moriarty became one of the leading players in the State, setting the standard for defensive play. He debuted for Western Australia in 1947, in a second side against Essendon, before playing the first of many for the State side in 1948, lining up alongside West Perth champion Fred Buttsworth, with East Perth's Jimmy Washbourne on the other flank.   Perth at the time were regular finalists, with the presence of  South Fremantle and West Perth making it a tough assignment in finals,  but made the grand final in 1949, against West Perth. It was the club's first grand final appearance for thirty two years, and it was to end in disappointment, losing by thirty points, with Moriarty among the best players.  Selected for the Brisbane carnival in 1950, Moriarty lined up with Perth again in the grand final, only to go down to South Fremantle by six points. It was in 1955 that the Perth Football Club achieved a long awaited premiership, and Moriarty was to the fore in Merv McIntosh's farewell performance.  Terry Moriarty retired midway through the 1958 season, at the age of thirty three. “I had suffered from leg injuries throughout my career,”he said. “I had fifteen or sixteen hamstring episodes, and the muscle trouble I had in fifty eight was the last straw. I think these days they call it osteopubis.”  He served on the committee of the Perth Football Club in 1959. Playing with Metropolitans in the Sunday League in 1960, Terry joined former Claremont star “Sonny” Maffina at South Suburban club Kelmscott in 1961, and was part of a premiership the following year.  He was inducted into the West Australian Football Hall Of Fame in 2010.  Moriarty  regards Rose as the best he'd played against, and had no hesitation in naming McIntosh as best he'd played with.  A long serving member of the Forests Department, Terry enjoys reading, walking, swimming, and hitting that elusive golf ball around at Royal Perth Golf Club, while still following Perth, but a hip replacement prevents him from getting to Lathlain.  A hard player who played the ball and not the man,he admitted to a secret. “I inadvertantly hurt a South Fremantle player in a collision underneath a pack one day,” he said. “There was a scramble on the ground involving about half a dozen players, I was on my hands and knees in the middle of it, in a defensive position with bodies and legs all round, so I wrapped my arms over my head as a protective measure.”  “Suddenly, out of nowhere, this head came straight toward me and slammed into mine, which was protected by my arms. His head connected with my arm with some force. It happened so quickly, the poor bugger never moved, and no one saw what happened.” “I copped plenty and gave plenty over my career and have forgotten them all, but that one still sticks with me, even though I know I was in no way to blame.”   Terry Moriarty is part of history at Perth. One of the greats of the Perth Football Club, he is still regarded as among their alltime best defenders, and half a century after his departure from the game his games record still stands.  His induction into the WAFL Hall Of Fame is due recognition.   

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