Vince Copley

Vince was an outstanding schoolboy footballer representing South Australia while attending Le Fevre Technical School. Port Adelaide were impressed with his ability and recruited him to play in the under 19s in 1953. Although Vince only played 13 games, he won the Tompkins Medal for the best and fairest player in the competition winning by 15 votes.

Vince stepped up to the Port Adelaide reserves in 1954 but after only 8 games moved to Curramulka where he completed the season by playing in his first A grade premiership team. In 1955, Vince played the first half of the season with West Broken Hill before being recruited to the VFL by Fitzroy where he played 11 games for the reserves.

Vince returned to Curramulka in 1957 and was appointed as their A grade coach delivering the club four premierships over the next four seasons. In the first of those four years, Vince won the Mail medal where he was described as a player with electrifying pace and excellent ball handling skills. He was then approached to play with South Adelaide and played 11 games for them in 1961.

Vince returned to play for Curramulka and played his part in three more premierships. He then accepted the challenge to coach Yorketown in 1967 and 1968 before returning to Curramulka to complete his career in 1970 aged just 34.

Regularly chosen as a member of Southern Yorke Peninsula representative sides surprisingly Vince was never asked to captain or coach those teams. This was despite coaching Curramulka to four straight flags that included a run of 42 consecutive winning games.

Vince was a talented all round sportsman recognised as a very good country cricketer and basketballer. The Vince Copley Medal is presented to the most outstanding cricketer at the annual Lord’s Taverners state wide indigenous cricket carnival.

In 2014, Vince was awarded an Order of Australia medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours list for his services to the indigenous community as an advocate for the improvement of social, legal and economic rights, and cultural identity. Vince is an elder of the Ngadjuri people and has held numerous leadership roles within the indigenous community.