Our own Gillion McLachlan is no longer the only former Uni Blues player to head a major sporting organisation with the recent appointment of Geoff “Joffa” Allardice Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Geoff moves to the full time role as after acting as interim CEO for the past few months.
Joffa represented Melbourne University with distinction in both cricket and football. He played for number of years at MUCC and later coached the club, as well as playing 14 first class games for Victoria as an opening batsman.
His Uni Blues career commenced in the Under 19s in 1985. He then went to Melbourne Football Cub where he played Reserves football for three years.The closest he got to senior football was playing in the international match against North Melbourne in Vancouver at the end of the 1987 season having been an emergency during the finals for the Dees. He returned to Blues in 1989 and played as a half back/winger until 1996 notching a total of 80 games.
Of course Joffa is not the only dual cricketer/footballer to have played with Blues. 2019 premiership player Meyrick “Mud” Buchanan has had a stellar Premier Cricket career as well as playing in the Australian Under 19 team and BBL for the Melbourne Renegade. Prior to “Mud” Paddy Smith also represented Melbourne in Premier Cricket and was a “hard man” and great aerialist for blues in the 2000s.
The full announcement by the ICC can be found on their website here
