Alan Cheek commenced with the Club as a junior in the mid-1950s.  In 1956 he won the Best Backman award for the Senior Colts (Under 19s) and the next year he won the Most Improved Junior for the Seconds before making his league debut in Round 14 of 1958 versus Glenelg at Kensington.  North had a strong league side in 1958, finishing Minor Premier before unluckily suffering many injuries and ending the season in third place.  As well as breaking into the league side, such was Alan’s form that he won the Best and Fairest Award for the Seconds.

In 1959 he took over as the league full back where he played soundly with a feature being his kicking off from the goalsquare.  He was awarded s Services Rendered Award at the end of that season.

In 1960 Alan had a slow start to the season where he found training difficult due to business pressures, but he was selected for 11 games including being 20th man in the 1960 premiership side.  North was behind when Alan came onto the ground in the last quarter and he played his part in the frenetic last minutes of the game when the North defence was under extreme pressure to hold on and win the premiership by the narrow margin of five points.

Alan again won a Services Rendered Award in this premiership year and continued with the club for another two years before retiring in 1962 having played 32 senior games for the Club.

Away from football Alan had a successful career in the Insurance Industry becoming one of SA and then Australia’s leading life insurance agents.

Alan remained a staunch North supporter and attended last year’s Grand Final hoping for a repeat of 1960 but alas it wasn’t to be.  He also enjoyed the recent official reunions of the 1960 Premiership side and he renewed acquaintances with many of his old teammates.  He was a keen organiser of annual unofficial reunions of that 1960 side.

Alan Cheek passed away in 2014 at 76 years of age and is remembered by the NAFC as a very popular past player and premiership hero.