We have just received the sad news of the passing of our former player and assistant coach, Dale Tapping.

Tapping, who died early this morning just weeks short of his 60^th birthday, was a premiership player with the Red ‘n’ Blacks in 1995.

Joining Old Xaverians under Matt Hannebery in 1993 after 105 VFA games with Prahran, he represented the Big V that year and the next.

After 52 games with the Red ‘n’ Blacks, he hung up the boots. Dale coached Old Brighton from 1997 to 2001 and led the Tonners to a B Section premiership in his first year. His next stop was Old Scotch, where he coached from 2002 to 2005.

He returned to Old Xavs in 2007 as an assistant coach under Barry Richardson, who had been his coach in Big V games and then at club level in 1995.

“We used to call him the Running Man,” Richardson said. “He was a tearaway off the half-back line, ahead of his time.  

“Dale was one of the fine men in football. He did well wherever he went and gained much respect as a coach and as a person.

“He was much loved by the Old Xavs fraternity, and I was proud to coach him, coach alongside him, and to have been considered something of a mentor in Dale’s coaching evolution,” Richardson said.

After assisting at Old Xavs, Tapping became an assistant coach at the Western Jets, and senior coach of Sandringham Dragons.

More recently he was the midfield development coach at Collingwood, then from 2013, coach of their VFL team, after which he joined the Brisbane Lions and spent five seasons as their AFL midfield coach.

He moved to Essendon at the end of 2021, where he had charge of the forward line. This year he was to have coached the Bombers’ VFL team.

Tapping was diagnosed with myeloma in early 2023 but had been recovering well after intensive treatment. He took ill again very recently after contracting pneumonia late last year.

Dale had a strong commitment to our club as a player and assistant coach. When reminded recently about the upcoming 30^th anniversary of the ’95 flag by long-serving former OXFC President, Simon Hunt, Tapping said he hadn’t forgotten and was looking forward very much to catching up with his Xavs’ premiership teammates.

Late last week, at the request of his family, Simon and Dermot Dann visited him and presented him a cap and scarf and an Old Xavs Centenary jumper, which bears his name.

The Old Xaverians Football Club extends its deepest condolences to Kellie and their children Summer and Mason, who have lost a husband and father all too suddenly.

The many hundreds of friends and admirers that he acquired along the way through football will mourn him too. He was one of the good ones.

May he rest in peace.

We will advise of funeral arrangements when they are finalised.

To celebrate Dale's contribution to our club, please join us for a drink this Sunday 9 February between 4:00 and 6:00 pm in the Wattletree Room (Level 1) at the Gardiner Hotel, 84 Glenferrie Road, Malvern.