Rather provocative headline, KK. Might be tongue in cheek but I reckon it’s unnecessary to refer to Dallas as ‘dirty’.
Dallas last ran on the pro circuit over 20 years ago and won the Stawell Gift in 1983. He also won the Bay Sheffield in SA in 1979. Coincidentally Dallas was coached by Neil King to win Stawell in 1983, and of course King was Athletics Australia CEO for 7 years in the 1990’s.
I saw him run some very good quarter miles off tight marks in the mid 80’s. Dallas would have been a very handy 400m runner quite probably sub 47s had he been allowed to run amateur when in his prime. However he was destined for the world of pro-running as his father W X O’Brien was a former runner, trainer, steward and handicapper who ran in two Stawell Gift finals - 5th in 1950 and 3rd in 1958.
Dallas also played football in the VFA for Sandringham and a little known fact is that he was in the VFA Under 19 all star team in 1978 that played againt the Vic Amateur U/19’s. (I played for Brunswick in the VFA and trained for the U/19 all star team in 1979 but missed selection…)
It certainly isn’t Dallas’s pro-running record that won him the job but clearly his involvement at IMG in high level sports marketing which involves major golf tournaments as well as the events listed in the article.
Dallas doesn’t suffer fools and it is a very interesting appointment and is likely to ruffle a few feathers as he won’t ‘just go with the flow’ which seemed be the way of his predecessor. He certainly will shake things up as he’s very assertive and has strong views on the way the sport can improve its profile.
Might be an inspired appointment.