Con Hickey

Cornelius Michael "Con" Hickey (1866 – 27 October 1937) was an Australian rules football player and administrator for the Fitzroy Football Club, and administrator for the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the Australian National Football Council (ANFC).

Con Hickey
Hickey in 1908
Personal information
Full name Cornelius Michael Hickey[1]
Date of birth 1866
Place of birth Timor, Victoria
Date of death (1937-10-27)27 October 1937 (aged 71)
Place of death Clifton Hill, Victoria
Original team(s) Maryborough
Position(s) Half-back
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1887–1894 Fitzroy 109 (2)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1893 Victoria 1
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1894.
2 State and international statistics correct as of 1893.
Source: AustralianFootball.com

Career

Born in Timor, Victoria in 1866, Hickey moved to Melbourne as a public servant in 1887. He played football as a half-back[2] for the Fitzroy Football Club from 1887 until 1894, earning sufficient acclaim to gain selection for Victoria in intercolonial football in his final playing season, 1893.[3] While in Timor, he had played a few years for Maryborough.[4]

He began his administrative career as secretary of the Fitzroy Football Club in 1893, also serving as club delegate to the Victorian Football Association board of management. He was secretary until 1910, and was a key part of the club's on- and off-field success during that time.[5] In 1897, when Fitzroy and seven other clubs seceded from the VFA to form the Victorian Football League, Hickey served as the inaugural treasurer of the new body, and later as chairman of the permit and umpire committee and vice-president,[2] and was a VFL administrator continuously until 1933.[6]

Hickey was a key figure in the formation and early administration of football's national administrative body, the Australasian Football Council (later the Australian National Football Council). He was the council's inaugural president from 1906 until 1909, and in 1910 he was elected secretary of the council, a position he held for the next 27 years until his death in 1937. In that capacity, he was heavily was involved in the ANFC's efforts to promote football nationally, which included establishing the interstate carnival[7] and taking on a heavy administrative workload to arrange all carnivals which took place during his life. He was also involved in efforts to establish universal football – a hybrid between Australian rules football and rugby league which was proposed and trialled at different times between 1908 and 1933 in the hope of unifying Australia under a single football code.[8] He was a life member of both the VFL and the ANFC.[6]

Hickey's importance to the development of the game as an administrator was widely regarded, and Perth's Sunday Times newspaper described him shortly before his death as "next in line of succession to the father and founder of the game, H. C. A. Harrison."[7]

Outside football

Hickey worked in the public service from 1884 until 1931. He died after an illness lasting several months in Clifton Hill, Victoria in late 1937. Hickey's nephew Reg Hickey is a Hall of Fame player and coach who won a total of four premierships with the Geelong Football Club.[6]

References
  1. "Births, Engagements, Marriages, Deaths and other notices". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 28 October 1937. p. 17.
  2. "Mr. "Con" Hickey". The Mercury. Hobart, TAS. 28 October 1937. p. 10.
  3. Old-Timer (5 August 1914). "Australian football carnival". Referee. Sydney, NSW. p. 1.
  4. "Too old". The Sporting Globe. Melbourne, VIC. 28 July 1934. p. 7.
  5. "Football reform – Mr C. M. Hickey's retirement". The Argus (Melbourne) (20, 192). Victoria, Australia. 10 April 1911. p. 4. Retrieved 17 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Death of Mr Con Hickey". The Argus (28, 451). Victoria, Australia. 28 October 1937. p. 4. Retrieved 17 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Con of the carnival". The Sunday Times (2061). Perth, WA. 25 July 1937. p. 1. Retrieved 17 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "One Common Code of Football for Australia!". The Referee (2417). New South Wales, Australia. 20 July 1933. p. 1. Retrieved 17 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
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