Vale Dallas Joiner (18 08 1968 - 02 07 2025)

Photo:  Dallas Joiner (right) presenting Devonport City's Roberto Garrido with the Ibro Cahut Top Goalscorer Award for the 2023 NPL Tasmania competition. [PlessPix]  

Dallas Joiner, a long-time supporter, coach and administrator of Glenorchy Knights, passed away in Hobart on Wednesday aged 56 after illness.

He served the club in these capacities over several decades.

Dallas also had stints as a player with Hobart Zebras and as a coach with Olympia Warriors.

He played a key role in Glenorchy Knights’ return to the top-flight NPL Tasmania competition a decade ago after they were demoted to the second tier.

His recruitment of players and obtaining of sponsorships were important factors in the club regaining its NPL status.

Photo:  Dallas Joiner (right) with Glenorchy Knights captain Tyler Harrison in 2019. [PlessPix]

 Dallas was a skilful and speedy left-footer who generally played on the left wing.

Tony Bacic, a former star player at Knights and one-time president of the club and also a workmate of Joiner in the real estate industry, recalls playing against Dallas when he was with Hobart Zebras.

“He was racing down the wing and I was trying to keep up with him and I was making choo-choo train noises to try and put him off,” Bacic said.

“I had no hope and he delivered a perfect cross from which Zebras scored.”

Dallas was keen on football statistics and he could rattle off some amazing facts about the local game.

Photo:  Dallas Joiner (second from left) with Knights coach Franco Previdi (second from right) and two of the club's new recruits in 2016, Kawa Kurdistan (left) and his brother, Siya Kurdistan (right). [PlessPix]

Dallas was also a keen golfer and an avid fisherman.

Tony recalls attending the annual Australian Croatian Football Tournament in Wollongong one year and taking time out to play a round of golf with Dallas.

Dallas put his shot into a bunker and then asked Tony to take a photograph of him chipping out of the bunker.

That was in the days of film cameras and 18 snaps later, Dallas was still in the bunker.

Dallas loved fishing and he sometimes accompanied George Mamacas, the former Olympia president, on fishing trips aboard his luxury motor yacht.

It was on one of these trips that Dallas caught what was allegedly the first snapper to be caught in Tasmanian waters, off Opossum Bay.

He prepared it as a meal the next day for George and half a dozen or so of their mates.

He also made one trip to New Zealand with George to go game fishing.

Dallas supported Carlton in the AFL and Manchester United in the EPL.

I shall miss our talks about football and his pearls of wisdom about the sport.

Dallas is survived by his parents, June and Bill, who are in their late 80s and early 90s, respectively, and his sister, Fiona, and niece Annaley and nephew Rafe.

Bill was one of Tasmania’s leading jockeys decades ago, hence Dallas’s keen interest in horse racing.