IT'S BEEN a big life for Peter Darley.
As a schoolboy at Prince Alfred College on the eastern fringe of the Adelaide CBD, he was the opening bowler for the First XI, in which school friend Ian Chappell captained the side.
At school with Wayne Jackson, the pair developed a lifelong friendship as they considered their future lives. Jackson went on to become a leading figure in the South Australian wine industry, head up the SA Brewing Company and eventually lead the AFL between 1997-2003 as chief executive, while Darley found considerable success in the early days with the Australian airline TAA, and then latterly in the hospitality industry.
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On the football field, Darley would yield to no one – a League ruckman with South Adelaide while still a student at PAC and eventually a seven-time club best and fairest and automatic state selection for SA. He now resides in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, after a wait that his contemporaries say was far too long.
In his playing days, Darley lived life large, had fun, and admits to burning the candle at each end, and sometimes in the middle too.
He remains a gregarious welcoming figure whose name alone brings a smile to a certain age group within SA, both male and female.
The basics of marking and kicking were obvious strengths, but he also had power, knew where the ball was going and could bend a game to his will.
He was also blessed with the charisma that few players have.
Tall, well-built and good-looking, in his time he played for the love of the game itself, not for any financial rewards, seeking just the thrill of competition, and the chance to make a difference with his beloved Panthers.
"I never lived my life thinking, 'I'm a footballer'," Darley said when we caught up during Gather Round in Adelaide earlier this year.
"I played football because I enjoyed it and did the things in my life in every aspect that I enjoyed.
"I wanted to give everything to those things I enjoyed, whether it was in business or in football, or when I spent time with friends and family. I've wanted to enjoy my life and I have."
Darley was the star in the centre square when South Adelaide, under Hall of Fame coach Neil Kerley, won its last premiership in 1964.
He had won his first best and fairest in 1963 when still a teenager but the Panthers had come dead last. Kerley arrived and took the club from bottom to top, defeating reigning premiers Port Adelaide in an extraordinary achievement never equalled since in SA footy and claiming the first flag for Souths since way back in 1938.
"Kerley was a motivator and a leader who led by example and got us to believe and do things we never thought we could do," Darley said.
"He didn't teach us how to drop kick, mark, or where to run, but he got a group of blokes who were bottom one year and had us top the next year because we were all on the one page and a team.
"He was a hard man who never asked us to do anything he wouldn't do himself, but he got us fit, got us believing we were fitter and better than everyone, and we went out and did it."
Darley would test his coach's patience with his penchant for fun off the field but was always ready to go on match day.
"'Kerls' knew how to read me and he knew how to get the best out of me and challenge me to be a good player on Saturdays," he said.
"There was always a challenge with Neil, whether it was on the footy field, water skiing, playing cards, ferreting or duck shooting. It was about winning, not participating!
"There was a quote I gave in the papers once, where I said that, 'Cars can't run without petrol and that I can't play football without beer'. That riled him up a bit at the time but he knew how to coach and lead people and get us towards the one target as a group."
The odd missed training session got him into some occasional trouble, and there is one legendary story when another coach lost patience and suspended him for a few days before a bye weekend to 'learn a lesson'. Unbeknown, Darley hopped on a plane to London for a few days to watch the Test cricket at Lord's where Bob Massie took his 16 wickets and Darley celebrated all the way back to Adelaide, in time to play the next game.
"I tell that story, and embellish it, sometimes at some footy lunches. It was lucky the coach didn't know at the time," he said.
His centre-square partnership with the great indigenous ruckman David Kantilla powered the club in this time of salad days, and the limited vision from the 1964 premiership shows Darley repeatedly marking above his rivals and owning the ball in the air, yet with agility that would match the smaller men at ground level.
Knee problems bedevilled him in 1965 and 1966, and going bush to recover, saw him return to leading status and more club championships.
After his return he was pressured into the coaching position between 1967-69, a job he reluctantly accepted. He was not successful, finishing fifth, sixth and 10th progressively, but tried to the best of his ability and was eventually replaced after three years by Hall of Fame member Jimmy Deane.
He was an automatic selection for the state side, going up regularly against the likes of Hall of Fame Legends John Nicholls and Graham 'Polly' Farmer when interstate contests were the pinnacle.
He claimed two more best and fairests in the early 1970s, but lost a Magarey Medal, courtesy of a one-game suspension for some sharp words to an umpire where he tied in the 1968 count with Hall of Fame Legend Barrie Robran.
At odd times over the past five decades, there's been talk that Darley should be able to share that Magarey Medal with the great Robran, but a personal accolade is not part of his wish list.
"I gave the umpire a bit of a burst but it's a long time ago now. I don't spend my days thinking about it," he said.
Darley didn't play football for monetary consideration, but to wear the jumper, and stayed loyal when Richmond led the charge of several VFL clubs to get him across the border.
He met with Jack Dyer, Ian Wilson and Graeme Richmond, and signed with the Tigers, only to stop the regular approaches from other Victorian clubs.
He never intended to head to Victoria at any point, as his career with TAA was finishing, and he was starting his four decades in the hospitality industry.
As business life took over and the body started to wear down, he headed to the forward line and won a club goalkicking trophy in his final years. Retirement came as he ticked past 30, as it did for so many footballers of that time who needed to consider working life, and didn't play well beyond that age like nowadays.
Three sons and an expanding tribe of grandchildren dominate conversation for him these days, and the values of his own youth are imparted on the younger Darleys making their way in the world.
"Nobody's had as much fun as I did, but you need to have respect for people and operate in the right way," he said.
"I say to the young ones all the time, look people in the eyes, remember names and shake hands firmly. Those little things go a very long way.
"I'm looking forward to the evening now, as the Australian Football Hall of Fame was something I never thought about, but it's a great honour to be remembered like this."
Now beyond working life, the football contacts are a strong source of sustenance.
He's kept in regular touch with a wide circle of teammates and adversaries, while his first love remains the Panthers, and he still attends club matches and functions when able, as a beacon of great times past.
The club is still searching for that next flag, and a group of modern-day heroes who can take the mantle from Darley and those of his 1964 teammates still with us, but the great Panther of the past remains with them in spirit every time they take the field.
PETER DARLEY
- South Adelaide (1962-74): 206 games, 123 goals
- South Australia: 13 games
- Premiership: 1964
- Best and fairest: 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973
- All-Australian: 1969 (Carnival)
- Leading goalkicker: 1974
- South Adelaide captain: 1967-69, 1971
- South Adelaide coach: 1967-69
