Historical information

Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer
Born: 10/03/1935
From: East Perth (WA)
Height: 191cm
Weight: 94kg
Natural kicking foot: Left
Guernsey number: 5
First senior match: Round 1, 1962 v Carlton at Princes Park

Many people believe that he became the Cats’ greatest player in his relatively short six-season career. Arriving to play at Geelong in a blaze of publicity at the age of 27, his participation in the 1962 intra-club practice matches attracted unprecedented spectator interest. Despite suffering a severe knee injury in the opening minutes of his first League match, he immediately demonstrated his wide range of skills. He is regarded as the greatest handpassing exponent in the history of football and was one of the first players to use it as a method of attack. Frequently he achieved distances of 30 to 40 metres with hand passes to team-mates in better position. His ruck work was also quite revolutionary. He developed the technique of leaping for the ball slightly earlier than his opponents and gaining a 'ride' higher into the air. Often he would, in preference to a conventional tap-out, roll the ball down one arm and handpass to a team-mate running past He developed this technique with Bill Goggin in particular. Geelong was never out of the finals during his League career

Total Brownlow Medal votes: 57
Premiership team selection: 1963
Captain: 57 matches (1965-67)
Runner-up in Brownlow Medal count: 1963 (equal)
Club Best & Fairest: 1963, 1964
Runner-up in club B&F count: 1966, 1967
Fourth in club B&F count: 1965
Ninth in club B&F count: 1962 (equal)
Coach: 1973-75
Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend (1996)
AFL Team of the Century selection (ruck)
Indigenous Team of the Century selection (ruck: captain)
GFC Team of the Century selection (ruck)
GFC Hall of Fame inductee (2002)
GFC Hall of Fame Legend
GFC Life Membership (1974)
Career span: 1962-67
Total matches: Premiership 101, Interstate 6
Total goals: Premiership 65, Interstate 6
Finals matches: 9
Finals goals: 2
Last senior match: Grand Final, 1967 v Richmond at the MCG
Coach: 1973-75

Information provided by Geelong Football Club Historian Col Hutchinson

Physical description

Black timber frame with gold inlay, white mounting card, text, black and white photo print, perspex. Black and gold text at the top of the display reads -Geelong Football Club-. More text at the bottom reads -Graham 'Polly' Farmer / Hand-balling through a car window-. The image depicts Farmer wearing a suit and hand passing a football towards the camera through a car window.