A slightly built (173 cm, 68 kg) and very quick rover with brilliant skills, Leonard played in Subiaco Football Club’s 1924 premiership side. He was Subiaco’s Best and Fairest player five times. He played 158 senior club games and represented his State 25 times.
Both Leonard and William (Billy) Thomas of East Perth Football Club polled the umpire’s vote in five matches.
With the Great Depression limiting employment options, Leonard moved to Victoria in 1931, coaching Maryborough in the Ballarat Football League, then in 1932 being appointed as Captain-Coach of South Melbourne. highlights:
158 games (146 Subiaco, 12 South Melbourne)
Subiaco captain 1930
Subiaco fairest and best 1926 to 1930
Subiaco premiership player 1924
Sandover medal 1926 and 1929 (retrospective)
25 state games for Western Australia
Leonard coached over only nine seasons but with a great deal of success, securing five WANFL premierships. He coached South Melbourne for the 1932 season, taking it to its first finals campaign in almost a decade.
Returning to Perth in 1933 for employment, he embarked on a further successful coaching period. He steered West Perth Football Club to successive premierships in 1934 and 1935.
Leonard was asked to return to South Melbourne at the end of 1936, but business prevented him moving to Victoria.
Staying in Perth, Leonard coached West Perth for another season, and then moved to coach a highly talented Claremont team to three consecutive premierships. Seven years later, Leonard was asked at the age of fifty to re-take the coaching reins at South Melbourne, but his business in a football-making factory took up all of his time and he could not accept. Leonard was inducted to the Australian Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1996 – one year after his death.