Thomas Anthony (Tony) Fahey – aka ‘Potsie’, ‘Sir Lunch-a -Lot’ or ‘Fatal’ depending in what era you knew him.
Thomas Anthony (Tony) Fahey – aka ‘Potsie’, ‘Sir Lunch-a -Lot’ or ‘Fatal’ depending in what era you knew him – was born on December 3 1946 at Calvary Hospital in Hobart.
Even though he spent most of his life on the ‘big island’, mainly in Western Australia, he remained a staunch Tasmanian till the day he died on December 1 2020 after an ongoing battle with cancer.
Tony was raised by his mother Jean in South Hobart. He had a younger brother, Donald, who sadly died at the age of two. Tony was in awe of his mother as she struggled to support he family.
Tony attended St Joseph’s Primary School initially and then did Grade 3 to Matriculation at St Virgils’s College Hobart.
He was a gifted student and had outstanding sporting ability. He was generally in the top few in his class (classes of up to 50 students) and was a regular among prize winners. He Captained the athletics team in his final year and was an athletics age champion for nine of his ten years at the College. He was also a standout footballer and cricketer.
He matriculated at the age of 16, a year earlier than others and received a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend the University of Tasmania where he enrolled to study Pharmacy.
Tony loved University and was known to say that his first year was brilliant as it was when he learned to drink, play cards, attend parties and not attend lectures or prepare for assignments and miss an exam or two! The obvious result of this was a complete wipe out in exams resulting in a loss of his scholarship!
Subsequently he had to repeat his 1st year but had to fund himself and therefore his attitude improved considerably, passing the 4 units which meant he could continue. However it didn’t appeal to him, so he withdrew. Dad said the world is a safer place since he didn’t end up as a pharmacist!
Tony commenced work with the Tax Office in Hobart in January 1966 and worked there for two years in Recovery, Teller and Assessing. In Tony’s view, all very exciting areas but the job provided him with the income to continue all the good times he learnt in his first year at University.
About this time his football career was beginning to take off. Post school he played with the Sandy Bay Under 19s before having a season with the Old Virgilians where he finished third in the B&F From there he returned to the Sandy Bay League team in 1967 where he played 11 senior games and where he won mark of the week four times which was a carton of 500 Rothmans and he didn’t even smoke. He said he never saw himself as a football player but rather as an athlete. However, after one game where he took 22 marks and started to be head hunted by Melbourne, Fitzroy and South Melbourne, he started to think he must be okay! Melbourne brought him over to the Mainland to watch the 1967 grand final and attend training which he apparently did well enough at because they signed him for 1968. There was no money involved as he was strictly an amateur for his athletics status which he always considered his main sport.
In 1968 Dad was at Melbourne Football Club in the VFL and he played 20 reserve games. He was selected on the seniors list and was given No. 19
He played a few good games, he kicked 6 goals against Hawthorn and 5 goals in the first half against North Melbourne before getting injured. He also won the goal kicking in that year in the reserves but due to his bad sense of direction he was delisted at the yearend review.
From 1969-71 he played 35 league games at Prahran football club in the VFA where he made a lot of lifelong friends and really loved the club and played in the 1970 Premiership team.
From 1972-1975 he played at Mordialloc in the VFA but was plagued with injuries and injured his knee cartilage in 1972 and 1973 and had to have operations and then in 1975 and to have a full reconstruction.
Despite the lack of coaching and available support, Tony did really well in athletics and was selected for the Tasmanian team as a decathlete to compete in the Australian Titles in Melbourne (1964), Hobart (1965), Perth (1966) and Adelaide (1967). His best result was a fourth in Perth so only just missed out on a medal. In his first Australian titles in 1964 he had only ever done nine events for the 10-event decathlon as Tasmania didn’t have a pole-vault set. He tried at the event to learn how to do this quickly but wasn’t very successful as he ended up high jumping higher than he pole-vaulted that year.
He broke the Tasmanian decathlon medal on six occasions and held that record for around 10 years after he moved to Melbourne.
Between 1968-1972 he competed for the Glenhuntly Athletics Club, and represented Victoria at the 1970 National Titles when he placed seventh in the decathlon.
With his move to Melbourne he was able to gain a transfer with the Taxation Department and over the ensuing12 years and he received five promotions in that time throughout various Federal Government Departments to eventually reaching level 10 in the Telecom Headquarters in 1981. During this period he commenced Accountancy studies and qualified a CPA in 1976.
In 1980 Tony moved to Karratha in the north of Western Australia and then to Perth four years later. From there he moved he moved further south to the Bunbury area, where he successfully set up his own business – Express Accounting. Here Tony’s involvement with sport continued – he had a 28 year association with the Bunbury Golf Club and was treasurer of the South Bunbury Football Club for 14 years.
Tony’s funeral service was held at the Christ the Living Vine Catholic Church at Australind on 11 December.
The service was live streamed by Barrett Funerals. This stream can still be viewed at
https://livestream.com/accounts/29439816/events/9438105
For those who knew Tony, I think you will find the eulogy content fascinating – Tony was a unique individual.
Sincere thanks to Tony’s son Scott and Barrett Funerals for their assistance in putting together this tribute.
