AFL Tasmania is proud to announce the elevation of Trevor Leo to Icon status in the Tasmania Football Hall of Fame.
The 23rd Icon of Tasmanian football was one of the finest rovers in Tasmania during the 1950s and 60s, Trevor represented the state at three National Carnivals, before turning his hand to coaching with great effect later in his career, the crowning moment coming when he guided a proud club to its finest hour.
In 1949 Leo became one of a select few 13-year-olds to be named in the Tasmanian State Schoolboys (U15) team, under the captaincy of fellow future champion Athol Webb.
In 1951 Leo played NWFU reserves games with Cooee under the watchful eye of his father Ray Leo, Cooee’s U19s coach, before finally making his senior debut aged 16.
In his debut season Leo claimed Cooee’s Best & Fairest award and twice represented the NWFU in intrastate fixtures in a year that confirmed his reputation as one of the most promising young players in the state.
So impressive was his form that VFL club Hawthorn attempted to lure him to the mainland for the following season, however Leo, armed with an assurance from the Tasmanian Education Department of fully subsidised university tuition, decided instead to relocate to Hobart.
Many TFL clubs naturally chased his services, with Hobart eventually winning the young star’s signature.
Over the following eight seasons, Leo became an indispensable member of the great Hobart teams of the late 1950s, contributing to TFL premierships in 1954, 1959 and 1960, the ’59 triumph also bringing State premiership success over Burnie.
For all his success as a player, Leo is at least equally venerated for his record as a coach.
After initially gaining experience coaching TFL U19 and Seconds sides during his time with Hobart, Leo’s first senior opportunity came in 1962 when a transfer with the Education Department saw him join Launceston in the NTFA.
The following season saw Leo appointed to the position of playing coach at New Norfolk, the TFL and Tasmania, all three of which he would hold for the next seven years.
On the representative front, Leo would guide the TFL side to 9 wins from 15 games and lead Tasmania at the 1966 Hobart and 1969 Adelaide National Carnivals, as well as to a memorable win over Western Australia in Perth in his first year.
Leo’s methods brought immediate results at New Norfolk, the side finishing only percentage off top spot in his first season at the helm and claiming a further three minor premierships to, for the first time, entrench New Norfolk as a powerhouse of southern football.
New Norfolk took out TFL and State premiership wins over North Hobart and Scottsdale respectively in 1968. These triumphs also brought down the curtain on Leo’s illustrious playing career, retiring after more than 250 games of outstanding senior football.
By 1970, the demands of Leo’s teaching career forced him to take the difficult decision to step back from football, a one-season, last-minute appointment as coach of Hobart in 1974 marking his last official involvement.
Leo’s contribution to the sphere of football has also been appropriately recognised in recent decades, with selection in both the Hobart and New Norfolk ‘Greatest Teams’, inaugural induction into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2005, and elevation to Legend nine years later.
Now at last, Trevor Leo rightfully sits as an equal amongst the highest echelon of champions in our state’s football history, as one of its most passionate, influential and decorated figures.