Denis Ryan (footballer)
Denis "Dinny" Ryan was an Australian rules footballer who played for Fitzroy in Victorian Football League during the 1930s.
Denis originally played with the Albury Rovers Football Club and kicked three goals in their 1933 premiership win over Henty Football Club in the Albury and District Football Association.
Denis won the 1934 - Albury and District Football Association's best and fairest award, the Stanley Medal, playing for the Albury Rovers Football Club, before heading down to Melbourne to play with Fitzroy.
Ryan debuted in the VFL in 1935, in round one, aged just 18 and started his career at centre half forward, topping Fitzroy's goalkicking in his debut season with 46 goals. He was moved to centre half back the following season and won the 1936 Brownlow Medal, with 26 votes, making it the fifth Brownlow in the previous six years to have gone to a Fitzroy player.
In 1939 after injuring his knee, Ryan joined the army and fought in World War II, as one of the "Rats of Tobruk" getting wounded at Tobruk, Libya and later served 18 months on the front line in New Guinea. , but he did serve four continuous years in the Army!
He never played VFL football after the end of World War Two.
In 1947, Denis was appointed playing coach of the Howlong Football Club in the Chiltern & District Football League.
