Lance Leak
From Snoutslouts
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Biographical
- Born: 30 August 1903
- Height: 162 cm
- Weight: 60 kg
- Recruited from: Sturt
- Previous Club: North Shore, Waratah
- GFC League Debut: 1934
Guernsey Number:
A brilliant rover with good evasive skills and a keen eye for goal, Lance Leak debuted with Sturt in 1922, and impressed from the start.
A smooth ball handler, some of his best games were played when the going was heavy, and he was frequently described in terms like ‘mud lark’ and ‘mud-skipper’. He represented South Australia at the 1924 Hobart carnival, and was widely acknowledged as one of the premier small men in the state.
His league career with the Double Blues was interrupted between 1926 and 1929 when he moved interstate to pursue career opportunities, and as a result he missed the chance of participating in the club’s premiership triumph of 1926. Leak played with North Shore in Sydney in 1926, and also represented both New South Wales and a Metropolitan Sydney representative side. For several years thereafter he lived in Darwin and captain-coached Waratahs during that time, including to a premiership.
He returned to South Australia in 1930 and resumed his SANFL career with the Double Blues. Two years later he finally got to achieve the main ambition of nearly all footballers when he played on a half forward flank in Sturt’s 1932 Grand Final defeat of North Adelaide.
Leak’s final two seasons in league football were spent with Glenelg, and included participation in the club’s boil-over Grand Final victory over Port Adelaide in 1934.
Lance Leak’s senior career at the top level comprised 102 games and 104 goals for Sturt, a season with North Shore, 22 games and 19 goals with Glenelg, four interstate appearances and seven goals for South Australia, plus three or four representative and interstate games (records are unclear) during the Sydney phase of his career.
References
1. Pride of the Bay
