Career
He played his career at Hooker and is considered one of the nation"s finest football players of the 20th century. Club career He played with the Toowoomba side in 1924-1925. Alongside Herb Steinohrt, Tom Gorman and Duncan Thompson Dempsey was in the Toowoomba sides which beat all comers including Sydney premiers Souths, Brisbane, Ipswich and visiting representative sides including New South Wales, Victoria, Great Britain and New Zealand.
In the 1930s he played with Ipswich and was a major influence in the years 1933-1935 when Ipswich dominated the Bulimba Cup, the triangular series played between the city representative sides from Brisbane, Toowoomba and Ipswich.
Representative career Dempsey played in all three Tests of the 1928 domestic Ashes series and in the first two Tests of the 1932 domestic series. In the famous "Battle of Brisbane" Test of 1932, Dempsey was forced off the field with a broken arm early in the second half.
Dempsey, his arm placed in splints, began weeping on the touchline because both the ambulanceman and the team"s manager, Harry Sunderland wouldn"t let him back into the game. He is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo Number.135.
He made two Kangaroo tours: 1929-1930 where he played in one Test and nine tour matches and 1933-1934 playing one Test and eleven minor games.
All up Dempsey played in four Ashes series against Great Britain.
