Gary Dempsey, winner of the Joe Grant Medal in Southport’s 1987 QAFL premiership, has been named the fourth-best player in the history of the Western Bulldogs.
Gary Dempsey with Zane Taylor when he played at Southport in the QAFL Grand Final
Dempsey, a 329-game ruckman with what was then Footscray (now the Bulldogs) and North Melbourne from 1967-84, received this monumental recognition as the Dogs’ celebrated 100 years in the VFL/AFL.
Now 76, he was among 25 players singled out at a gala dinner in Melbourne on Monday night, chosen at #4 behind Ted Whitten (#1), Marcus Bontempelli (#2) and Chris Grant (#3) and ahead of Doug Hawkins (#5).
The top 25 Bulldogs of all-time in their respective eras (not ranked beyond the top five) were:-
1925-45: Norm Ware, Harry Hickey, Arthur Olliver, Charlie Sutton, Allan Hopkins, Alby Morrison
1946-65: John Schultz, EJ Whitten, Wally Donald, Jack Collins
1966-85: Gary Dempsey, Doug Hawkins, Kelvin Templeton, Simon Beasley
1986-1999: Scott Wynd, Chris Grant, Scott West, Brad Johnson, Tony Liberatore
2000-2025: Bob Murphy, Matthew Boyd, Dale Morris, Tom Liberatore, Marcus Bontempelli, Ellie Blackburn
Dempsey finished an extraordinary AFL career with two seasons at Southport in 1986-87, and is recognised via the naming of
‘The Dempsey Room’ at Southport’s headquarters.
The 1975 Brownlow Medallist and seven time club best & fairest – six at Footscray B&F and one at North – was chosen as the #1 ruckman in the Footscray Team of the Century and was an emergency for the North Team of the Century.
Having finished top 10 in the Brownlow a staggering 13 times, he ranks fifth in all-time Brownlow Medal votes with 218.5, behind only Gary Ablett Jnr (262), Patrick Dangerfield (251), Sam Mitchell (227) and Scott Pendlebury (223), and ahead of Robert Harvey (215), Joel Selwood (214), Dustin Martin (213), Chris Judd (210) and Lachie Neale (209).
Also, he’s equal sixth all-time for three-vote ratings in the medal with 45, equal with Mitchell and Harvey, and behind only Ablett (55), Dangerfield (54), Neale (52), Judd and Marcus Bontempelli (46).
He also held the AFL record for most marks in history until he it was surpassed in 2017 by another ex-Southport player, Nick Riewoldt.
He was 38 when he led the Sharks to the ’87 win over Windsor-Zillmere at Windsor Park, and was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 1996.