Geoffrey (Paddy) Martin

Paddy Martin is one of the great characters of Tasmanian football and was a star during Tasmanian football’s golden era in the 1950s.

His football journey started in 1945 as a school boy aged 17 with the Launceston Football Club.

Over the next 15 years Paddy played over 330 games with Launceston, Sandy Bay, Ulverstone and Burnie.

He represented Tasmania twice, including his selection in the Tasmanian team for the 1953 National Carnival in Adelaide where he acquitted very himself well against the nation’s best, so much so that he attracted overtures from VFL side Melbourne.

He relocated to the north-west coast following the 1954 season and joined the Ulverstone Football Club. It was to be the start of an extraordinary run of personal success for him, with six premierships in the next six seasons: three in a row with the Robins from 1955-57 including a state premiership and Best and Fairest in 1955 – followed by another hat-trick of flags from 1958-60 as captain-coach of Burnie. During this period he also gained North West Football Union (NWFU) representative honours, captaining the NWFU side in 1959.

After he retired as a player Paddy guided the North West Football Union to an unprecedented six consecutive representative victories as coach.

He was named on the half back flank in the Launceston Football Club’s team of the century and was made an AFL Tasmania Icon in 2015.