WHEN the great Peter Hudson declares there to be only a 'cigarette paper' between any champion and St Kilda legend Darrel Baldock as the best Tasmanian player he has seen, you know there was something special about him.

So it was with John Leedham, widely considered the greatest Tasmanian never to play in the VFL/AFL, and now an inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

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Leedham, who died in May 2020 nine days after his 92nd birthday, almost did join the VFL when he was invited to Melbourne in 1948 to play with the Demons, but a pre-season knee injury meant he never debuted and returned to Tasmania, where he met and married his wife, affectionately known as 'Bubbles'.

Despite having other opportunities to return to the Demons as they launched on a golden run that yielded five premierships in six years in the 1950s, his magnificent career unfolded with similar success on the Apple Isle as he and Bubbles raised three children, Jenny, Pippa and John.

"He was invited to play with the Melbourne Football Club in the '48 season and attend their pre-season, and there were about 400 other hopefuls there at the same time," daughter Pippa Robertson said.

"Frank 'Checker' Hughes was the coach and he said to Dad 'just do a couple of laps and go in', the president (William Flintoft) wants to talk to you.

"When he got inside the clubrooms, the president said 'let's talk money', and dad said, 'I don't want to talk money, what I do want is a guarantee that I will get 10 games in the centre and then we'll talk money'.

"They agreed to those terms, but sadly in the pre-season Dad did his knee and that's what stopped him having a VFL debut, but he came back home and met my Mum.

"He obviously didn't play, but I think it was recognised that he probably could have done very well over there."

Hudson's comment, which Robertson said was relayed to her in another chat about her father's induction, proved that sentiment.

"I did a podcast with Alister Nicholson the other night and he played something Peter Hudson had said about Dad," she said.

"I think they had a very mutual respect for each other, and he said between John and Darrel Baldock there's a cigarette paper between them, so he was a super player and he played in that golden era of football."

Leedham grew up on a farm and started playing football in the historic Midlands centre of Campbell Town, a third of the way between Launceston and Hobart, before heading north at 17 to try his hand in the major league, when officials from one club made a mistake they no doubt always regretted.

"Dad was the sort of person who would just rock up at the closest club and he went to City South," Robertson said.

"They told him he wouldn't get a game there, go to North Launceston, so he did and his career was just amazing up there, he won an All-Australian blazer and he captained and coached, he really had a stellar career in North Launceston."

Stellar might be underselling it as he won a remarkable five premierships in his first five seasons at the Bombers, who went on to defeat the southern premiers in three of those five years to be crowned state champions and represented Tasmania in the 1947 state carnival before returning to Campbell Town as captain-coach for 1951-52.

The champion ruck-rover then returned to captain-coach North Launceston in 1953 – a year that yielded his second national carnival and saw him become the first Tasmanian selected in an All-Australian team – before being lured to North Hobart as captain-coach the following year.

It was a move that created ructions across the NTFA given the very real rivalry between the north and the south that still exists today and was used for years as an excuse not to give Tasmania an AFL team.

"Without saying a lot, ties were severed a bit (when he moved to Hobart) because it did become the north and south and he was now coaching in the south," Robertson said.

"He had such a stellar career with North Launceston, they were such a strong club with some amazing players back in the day, but coming down to North Hobart he had to sever ties because it is a real north and south thing in Tasmania.

"I think it was a bit hard for Dad because he had a very soft spot for North Launceston and we ended up living down in Hobart, so all his football friends (at the Demons) became our extended family."

Leedham coached the Demons from 1954-59 and filled the same role for his state in the 1958 national carnival, leading Tasmania to its first wins over South Australia and Western Australia, and although he retired at 31, he spent the rest of his life involved in footy, right up to a stint as president of North Hobart from 1998-2009.

He was named an inaugural Legend in the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2005, when he was selected at ruck-rover in its Team of the Century, being named vice-captain to Baldock ahead of superstars like Hudson, Ian Stewart, Royce Hart, Ivor Warne-Smith, Verdun Howell, Laurie Nash and Horrie Gorringe, and was then elevated to Icon status in 2014.

He thought that would be the peak of his achievements, given he is also vice-captain of North Hobart's Team of the Century and North Launceston's greatest team, and Robertson said he would be so proud at this latest recognition.

"I think when he ran onto the football ground he changed but in everyday life, he was very humble," she said.

"When he went into the initial Hall of Fame in Tassie he was very humbled by it, he was in some amazing company and being vice-captain was such an honour, and then when he went in as an Icon with Ivor Warne-Smith, I think was the other gentleman, he was just really blown away and very, very chuffed to have been given that honour.

"He said in one of his interviews 'I can't go much higher now', and it was just an amazing tribute to him, and now he's in the Australian Football Hall of Fame," Robertson said.

"It would be very lovely if Dad was here; sadly, he's not, but it's a big honour.

"I wasn't born when Dad played so I've had to sort of do a lot of research and I always knew he was good, but I didn't realise he was this good … he's got some amazing scrapbooks and you look at them, but it doesn't resonate until you have to speak to it, but his list of honours is huge.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed it because I've learned a lot more about Dad's footy career than I probably would have ever known while he was alive."

Aside from his wonderful footy exploits, Robertson said her dad was a great man who would do anything for his family, which stretches to 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and they will take great pride in passing on the stories of his exploits.

"He was extremely involved in football and even after he finished playing, he had a career in TV and radio, but he supported the three of us in anything we chose to do, it didn't matter if it wasn't football – John was an extremely good soccer player and that was OK," she said.

"I remember I was playing water polo one year and I was under the water and all I could hear was my father yelling.

"He was very passionate and he came and watched us all play sport and then when the grandchildren came along, he was just an exceptional granddad – Mum and Dad would take them to the footy and they all loved him.

"He was a good person and well respected in the community and if you ever wanted to start a fight in Hobart, you could just walk into a pub and say John Leedham couldn't play football and it was on.

"We grew up as a family around North Hobart because that's where he was coaching. It was just like an extended family to us – back in those days there wasn't a lot to do on a Saturday, you went to the footy, there weren't lots of sports played or shops open so North Hobart wrapped their arms around us all and it was a pretty great lifestyle we had and a really good bunch of people around us."

And as a passionate Tasmanian, what would he have thought about the long-awaited arrival of the Devils into the AFL in 2028?

"When it was first raised he was a bit hesitant – I don't know if he was completely sure about the dynamics of having an AFL footy club in Tasmania," Robertson said.

"But as time went on he embraced it and thought it would be a fabulous move for Tasmania and I think he would be extremely proud we've got a team in the AFL.

"We've had some amazing players come out of Tassie, so, yeah, he was a little bit tentative, but he embraced it as time went on … he chatted a lot about it and what it would look like."

JOHN LEEDHAM

• North Launceston (1946-50 player, 1953 captain-coach): 124 games
• North Hobart (1954-59, captain-coach): 114 games
• Tasmania: 13 games (national carnival 1947, 1953, 1958 captain-coach)
• All-Australian: 1953 (first Tasmanian)
• NTFL premierships: North Launceston 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950
• TFL premiership: North Hobart 1957 (captain-coach)
• State premierships: North Launceston 1947, 1949, 1950
• Tasmanian Hall of Fame: Inaugural Legend 2005, Icon 2014
• Tasmanian Team of the Century: ruck-rover, vice-captain
• North Hobart Hall of Fame
• North Hobart Team of the Century: ruck-rover, vice-captain
• North Launceston Best Team: 1945-99