Football champion and trail blazer, Bill Dempsey, has passed away at age 83.
Mr Dempsey was a legend of the game, starring in both the WAFL and NTFL, playing close to 500 senior games across the two leagues.
In 2022 he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Born in the small railway town of Birdum in 1942, Mr Dempsey spent much of his childhood at the Retta Dixon mission, 500 kilometres away from his home and mother.
Mr Dempsey had been removed from his family following the deaths of his father, a returned serviceman, and sister after contracting meningitis. His mother would continually fight for her son and remain a huge part of his life.
While still a boy, he played in premierships for Northern Territory football league side Darwin Buffaloes before relocating to Western Australia to play with West Perth in 1960.
Early contracts allowed his return to Darwin each summer to play with his former club, balancing footy with night school in accountancy and later running his own scaffolding business.
At 187 centimetres Dempsey would play primarily as a ruckman before West Perth's recruitment of Australian football giant Graham 'Polly' Farmer as captain-coach ahead of the 1968 season. Dempsey alternated between ruck and back pocket thereafter, and remained a hugely influential player.
VFL sides South Melbourne, Footscray and Hawthorn would all vie for his signature over the years but he chose to stay with the WA and NT leagues.
His 1969 Simpson Medal as best on ground in that year's WANFL (WAFL) grand final against East Perth in front of 51,000 fans was one of the crowning achievements of his career - and he gifted that medal to his mother.
Mr Dempsey played in 343 games across 17 seasons at West Perth, many as captain, and won three premierships in 1969, 1971 and 1975 and 14 state games for Western Australia. It remains the second highest number of games by any player in the WAFL.
He also captained the Buffalos in Darwin, winning three flags in the Top End.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said Mr Dempsey would be remembered as one of the rarest of great footballers from the state league era - a 12-month-a-year player who starred wherever he played and was "a trailblazer for stars coming to the game from the Northern Territory".
Mr Dillon said Dempsey was revered in both WA and NT football and would be greatly missed by so many across the game, particularly by those players he inspired who came after him.
"In recent years, it was a great pleasure to be able to meet Bill at his Hall of Fame induction, and during his time as a Sir Doug Nicholls honouree, and the stories he told of football in the 1960s and 1970s and moving between Perth and Darwin for his extraordinary playing career," the AFL chief executive said.
"He shared premiership rucking duties at West Perth with the greatest ruckman of them all - Polly Farmer - and he played state football with and against all the greats of that time in the days when state leagues were the pinnacle of our game.
"He devoted his working life after football to supporting his community and was an incredibly humble recipient of the Sir Doug Nicholls award, talking always of his desire for people to be able to see the point of view of others. We send our sincere condolences to his partner Jeran, family and many friends and give thanks for a remarkable life."
The great Territorian's legacy in the sport has continued long after his presence on the field.
In 2005 he was inducted into the Australian football Indigenous team of the century at back pocket with his former teammate and coach, Farmer, holding down the ruck spot.
In 2022 Mr Dempsey was honoured as the ambassador of the AFL's Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous round.
