Fred Leach

Australian rules footballer

Fred Leach
Leach in 1901
Personal information
Full name	John Frederick Leach
Date of birth	6 March 1878
Place of birth	Heidelberg, Victoria
Date of death	14 April 1908(1908-04-14) (aged 30)
Place of death	Surrey Hills, Victoria
Original team(s)	Boroondara
Height	183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	83 kg (183 lb)
Playing career¹
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1897–1903	Collingwood	84 (8)
¹ Playing statistics correct to the end of 1903.
Career highlights
VFL premiership player: 1902
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

John Frederick Leach (6 March 1878 – 14 April 1908) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).^[1]

Family

The son of Thomas Leach (1847-1916),^[2] and Emma Bunkin Leach (1847-1893), née Stuckey,^[3] John Frederick Leach was born in Heidelberg, Victoria on 6 March 1878.^[4]

Brothers

His two brothers, Arthur Thomas Leach (1876–1948) and Edward Hale "Ted" Leach (1883-1965) also played for Collingwood.^[5]

Football

Leach was a centreman in the losing Grand Final side of 1901, but played at centre half-back in the 1902 premiership team.

1899 team of "champions"

At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for The Argus, Reginald Wilmot ("Old Boy"), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:

Backs: Maurie Collins (Essendon), Bill Proudfoot (Collingwood), Peter Burns (Geelong).
Halfbacks: Pat Hickey (Fitzroy), George Davidson (South Melbourne), Alf Wood (Melbourne).
Centres: Fred Leach (Collingwood), Firth McCallum (Geelong), Harry Wright (Essendon).
Wings: Charlie Pannam (Collingwood), Eddie Drohan (Fitzroy), Herb Howson (South Melbourne).
Forwards: Bill Jackson (Essendon), Eddy James (Geelong), Charlie Colgan (South Melbourne).
Ruck: Mick Pleass (South Melbourne), Frank Hailwood (Collingwood), Joe McShane (Geelong).
Rovers: Dick Condon (Collingwood), Bill McSpeerin (Fitzroy), Teddy Rankin (Geelong).

From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — Wilmot selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season.^[6]

Death

He died of typhoid fever at his father's residence in Surrey Hills on 14 April 1908.^[7]^[8]

Footnotes

^ "Fred Leach". Collingwood Forever. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
^ Deaths: Leach, The Argus, (Friday, 6 October 1916), p.1.
^ Deaths: Leach, (Saturday 9 December 1893), p.5.
^ Births: Leach, The Argus, (Tuesday, 12 March 1876), p.1.
^ The three brothers appear in the photograph at File:Collingwood 1902 premiers.jpg of 23 Collingwood First XVIII players, taken in 1902 (the same photograph, with all individuals identified by name, is at [1]).
^ 'Old Boy', "Football: A Review of the Season", (Monday, 18 September 1899), p. 6.
^ Deaths: Leach, The Age, (Wednesday, 15 April 1908), p.1.
^ Death at Surrey Hills, The (Box Hill) Reporter, (Friday, 24 April 1908), p.4.