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Ex-Docker Leach dies after cancer battle

AFL

Inaugural Fremantle Dockers squad member Quenton Leach has died after a battle with cancer.

Leach, who was 47, played in the WA club's first AFL game and made 56 senior appearances between 1995-1998.

He famously kicked a goal after the siren against Brisbane in round eight of the 1997 season to steer the Dockers to a thrilling five-point win at Subiaco Oval.

Leach was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2016.

He was reportedly taken into palliative care this week and died on Monday afternoon.

Former Fremantle player Brad Wira, who played with Leach at both the Dockers and WAFL club Claremont, paid tribute to his ex-teammate.

"'Leachey' would light up the room, he would make everyone laugh and I think that's what everyone will miss about him," Wira said.

"He was a Marist boy, he played at Claremont and he was an inaugural Freo player.

"He's touched a lot of football people over his 47 years and everyone will have a Quenton story that will make them smile and remember him today and into the future.

"He was a gun footy player and probably one that didn't play at the elite level as long as he should have.

"While we didn't have a lot of success in those early years, some of the friendships formed over that era are some of the most important friendships of everyone's lives."

Leach is survived by wife Shannan and three children.

"As we all got older, it was clear he was a great family man," Wira said.

"I know everyone who played with him will be thinking of Shannan, his three children, Ella, Oliver and Jackson, his brother Jason and all immediate family."

Former West Coast captain John Worsfold, who crossed paths with Leach in four Western Derby matches, was also among the leading football figures to pay tribute to the former Docker on Wednesday.

"It's tragic for his family to lose a young husband and father," Worsfold said.

"He was a wonderful footballer and had a really strong career with Fremantle."

Champion West Australian boxer Danny Green was a friend of Leach and said the "universe had lost a very special human".

"He literally was one of the funniest, loosest, yet kind and caring blokes I ever met," Green posted on Facebook.

"He was eternally making everyone laugh, and would boost peoples' spirits with his incredibly positive and uplifting energy, even when he was doing it extremely tough."

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