Gary Dempsey

Gary Dempsey was born on 22 November 1948 and is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray and North Melbourne in the Victorian Football League. A fine ruckman known for his strong marking, he won the Brownlow Medal in 1975 and finished in the top ten of the Brownlow count thirteen times. After debuting in 1967 and recovering from serious bushfire burns in 1969, he won six Footscray best and fairest awards, then joined North Melbourne in 1979, played 122 games there and retired in 1984. He held the all-time record for most marks in the VFL and AFL until Nick Riewoldt passed it in 2017, and he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.