The 80-year-old lights up the room after being inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Football great Bill Dempsey was a star of this year's Hall of Fame award ceremony, telling the fascinating tale of his Simpson Medal.He delighted the crowd with a story about his Simpson Medal which he won for best-on-ground in the 1969 WAFL grand finalAn icon in Perth, the 80-year-old lit up the room at Crown Melbourne after being inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night.
Arguably Dempsey's finest hour as a player was the 1969 WAFL grand final as he combined with the legendary Graham "Polly" Farmer in leading West Perth to premiership glory.However, his medal was lost during the devastation of Cyclone Tracy which hit Darwin in 1974. Dempsey said he was able to have a replica made for him, with his mother proudly, but incorrectly, telling friends about her son winning the "Simpson Desert Medal".On Tuesday, Dempsey recalled the bizarre chain of events that led to his beloved medal being returned to him.
Gold prospectors found the original medal in the Simpson Desert many years later, which was enough proof for Dempsey's mother to feel vindicated."She said, 'What is Andamooka?' and I said, 'It's in the Simpson Desert.'A member of the Stolen Generations, Dempsey survived tremendous hardship as a child to become a football great in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.