Mark Tandy was inducted into the Swans Hall of Fame in 2009.

Mark Tandy

1911-1915; 1917-1926
207 games
47 goals
1918 Premiership
Captain 1922
Swans Team of the Century

Bio

As a Yarraville boy, Mark Tandy dreamt of playing alongside his local hero, Len ‘Mother’ Mortimer, in the red and white. When club stalwart Bert Howson brought him to the club, it wasn’t long before Tandy, with his instantly recognisable mop of sandy hair, made his impression on League football.

He played his first game in 1911, taking up position on the ‘centre-left wing’. With an extensive football education courtesy of the strong Yarraville Juniors club already under his belt, he took to the highest level quickly. Reporter ‘Rover’ in The Weekly Times described him as “the typical wing flier, his pace being a long way above the average fast man.”

He also said, “Anticipating the drift of play by a kind of tuition, Tandy fairly darts to the ball, picking it up like lightning and gets it away in the same flashing manner.”

Tandy played with pluck and courage, and as his reputation grew, so did his team’s. In 1914, he played in his first VFL Grand Final. South were favoured to win, but Carlton met them with a game plan that stopped their running game in its tracks, eventually losing by five points. After defeating the Blues in the preliminary final the previous week, ‘J.W.’ reported in The Australasian that, “It was surprising to see the red and whites so forgetful of their successful lessons in one short week.”

When the 1915 season commenced the day before the Gallipoli landing, many believed the war would be over in a matter of weeks. As the sobering news of sacrifice filtered through back home, the debate surrounding football’s relevance in wartime Australia took hold. Many wanted the sport to go into recess, but the game continued.

However, the following year, South were one of five clubs to withdraw from the VFL. Tandy and his teammates sat out the 1916 season as bleakness descended on the country.

Shortly before the end of World War I, the Southerners won the 1918 flag, with players presented afterwards with commemorative premiership caps. Tandy played a key role throughout, and with less than a minute to play, gathered possession 50 yards from goal, raced past three opponents, and sent the ball to the goal square with one of his trademark long, driving kicks. The ball dropped short, but in the scramble, Chris Laird lashed a boot through the ball for a last-gasp match-winning goal.

The Australasian reported, “In achieving what was considered an impossibility, South scored the most remarkable victory ever witnessed in a Grand Final.”

South Melbourne’s premiership-winning team of 1918 also came tantalisingly close to playing out the perfect season. Their only loss, delivered by the bottom team, St Kilda, on the King’s Birthday holiday, meant the Southerners lost the chance to become the VFL’s first-ever undefeated premier.

Tandy later told The Record the details behind that ‘lost weekend’.

“We were sitting on top of the League ladder, and one of our patrons — a well-known racing man — invited us to spend the weekend at his beautiful home in the Dandenongs and return to Melbourne on Monday morning for the afternoon match against St Kilda.

“Boy, will I ever forget that wet cupboard or that weekend! Most of us did not shut our eyes for 48 hours, and when they put us on the train at Ferntree Gully near midday, that sleep to Flinders Street was the only shut-eye we had to freshen us up for the game.”

“Some of the boys were wobbling at the knees when they walked from the St Kilda train across to the old St Kilda oval. Fair dinkum, when some were dressed to go out on the field, they had to be headed in the direction of the arena gate and given a shove-off. That they ever saw the game out was a miracle.”

Despite the excessive frivolity, the Southerners compiled an outstanding record, and for Tandy, a lifetime South supporter, playing in that premiership was like an expedition to football’s utopia.

It was a memorable time for Tandy off the field as well, with his marriage to Port Melbourne girl Lily Ford coming just before the commencement of that successful season. The couple settled in Ferrars Street, South Melbourne, where they raised their son, Mark Jr.

Due to his outstanding all-round abilities, Tandy was a regular selection in the Victorian teams of the time; he played for his state eight years in a row. In 1919, ‘Rover’ wrote, “Tandy is never ruffled, nor is his effectiveness discounted by the roughest passage. Be the going smooth or rugged, the Southman moves with the passing tide, all the time helping to set it favourably for his side.”

When the champion ruck Roy Cazaly joined South in 1921, Tandy underwent a remarkable transformation. Renowned as the game’s premier wingman, he shifted into a new role as rover. It proved a masterstroke, and by 1923, he was voted by The Sporting Globe as the best rover in the League.

Cazaly and Tandy were joined in the following division by Fred Fleiter, becoming collectively known as ‘The Terrible Trio’. Cazaly later praised Fleiter as being a great footballer with football brains. He also declared that Tandy was the greatest rover he had ever seen.

A typically laidback Australian, Tandy was renowned for being a joker both on and off the field. Cazaly gave him the nickname ‘Napper’ due to his being so relaxed. “He was the most complacent rover I ever rucked to. I would stir the soul out of him if we were being beaten. He would just shake his head, smile, and say ‘Well, you’re the boss,’ or ‘Have it your own way,” Cazaly told The Sporting Globe.

The pair remained great friends after football despite living in different states. In a somewhat comforting symmetry, both represented Victoria 13 times, captained South (Tandy in 1922), and were inducted together in the inaugural intake of the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

On Saturday, May 22, 1965, The Record reported the ‘Sudden death of former champion rover’. Tandy passed away in his sleep at home, aged 73, and the entire South Melbourne community mourned the loss. At the Lake Oval, flags flew at half-mast, and The Record claimed that “Next to Bob Skilton, present-day champion rover, deceased must rank as the greatest rover in the history of the South Melbourne Football Club.”

Tandy retained a keen interest in his beloved South Melbourne until his passing, and he’d regularly attend home games with former teammate Roy Reardon. A roll-call of past and present Swans champions attended his funeral, with red and white floral wreaths laid to rest with him.

Perhaps the only regrettable outcome from such a distinguished career is that South only started presenting best and fairest awards in Tandy’s final year, 1926. It’s an uncanny piece of poor timing, given Tandy’s love of repairing antique clocks, and it’s well-known that he would have received multiple medals.

However, when the time came to select the Swans Team of the Century in 2003, Tandy’s standing within the club was formalised, taking his rightful place on the team of the greatest ever to wear the colours.