Terry Cashion: the rover who made Tasmania believe
Terence Robert Cashion (7 April 1921 – 8 October 2011) was the kind of footballer who makes a small island feel ten feet tall. A darting rover with velvet skills and iron courage, he starred for five Tasmanian clubs—New Town, Clarence, Longford, Sandy Bay and, briefly, South Melbourne—before belatedly taking his place in the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2022.
Born in North Hobart, Cashion burst straight from Buckingham juniors into New Town’s TANFL side in 1939. Even at 18 his balance, sure hands and goal sense stood out, and he quickly became the league’s most watchable on-baller.
Like many of his generation, war interrupted his rise. Stationed in Victoria in 1942, he accepted an offer from South Melbourne and kicked five goals in his five VFL matches before a knee injury and army duties curtailed the adventure. Combat service in Borneo followed; football would have to wait.
Back home after demobilisation, Cashion joined Clarence (1946-47). His performances at the 1947 Hobart Carnival were so dazzling he won the Stancombe Trophy as Tasmania’s best player—a prize he would collect again in 1950.
Longford lured him north in 1948 and reaped a harvest. Over four seasons he claimed three NTFA best-and-fairest awards and, at the 1950 Brisbane Carnival, out-pointed the nation’s elite to become the first—and still only—Tasmanian to win the coveted Tassie Medal.
Cashion’s final playing chapter came with Sandy Bay (1952-54). He drove the Seagulls to a TFL flag in 1952, secured the William Leitch Medal a year later and retired with seven club best-and-fairest trophies and 193 senior and representative appearances to his name.
State football remained his favourite stage. In 14 outings for Tasmania he was so influential that contemporaries still debate whether he, not the great Horrie Gorringe, ranks as the island’s finest rover. “Brilliant and scrupulously fair,” an AFL profile noted on the night he finally joined football’s pantheon.
Recognition flowed late but emphatically: Tasmanian Team of the Century (2004), Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame Icon (2005) and, the ultimate acknowledgement, induction into the national Hall of Fame in 2022. Each honour confirmed what locals had argued for decades—that Terry Cashion’s combination of artistry and grit deserved a place beside the game’s household names.
More than seventy years after he last weaved through a pack, Cashion’s feats still flicker in grainy newsreels and museum showcases: the single step to space, the snap through traffic, the handshake for the Tassie Medal. For Tasmanians, he remains a touchstone—a reminder that the very best can come from just across the river, and that greatness measured in skill, spirit and state pride never fades.
Inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame: 2022
Playing career: 1939-41 (New Town), 1942 (South Melbourne), 1946-47 (Clarence), 1948-51 (Longford), 1952-53 (Sandy Bay)
Playing honours: Stancombe Trophy 1947 and 1950; Tassie Medal 1950; Tasman Shields Trophy 1948, 1950-51; William Leitch Medal 1953, Tasmania Team of the Century, inducted 2004; Tasmania Football Hall of Fame Icon.