| The Hales originated in the Southampton
area of England and were a military family. Alfie's
great-grandfather was a British soldier serving in St. Thomas Mount in
India where Alfie's grandfather, George, was born. George also joined
the Army and it was he who came to Waterford in the early
1900's. He married Elizabeth White of 52, Lower Yellow Road and,
co-incidentally, Alice White, her sister married his best friend David Smith (Montrose, Scotland,
another soldier). This David Smith is the great-grandfather of Waterford's greatest ever
female athlete Susan
Smith a two-timeOlympian, in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. Alfie's grandmother and Susan's great-grandmother were sisters.
The Hales lived in Ard-na-Greine, that nursery of sporting excellence in
the city and Alfie joined St.Joseph's soccer club where he played his
under-age football. He began playing for Waterford at age sixteen
and in little over a year he was a regular on the senior team and had
gained an amateur international cap. In 1960 he signed
professional forms with Aston Villa F.C. with whom he played in the
English First Division. He also played with Doncaster Rovers
before returning to Waterford in 1967 and began what turned out to be
one of the most successful careers in League of Ireland history. Over the following decade he won, with Waterford FC, every honour in the
domestic game except a cup-winners medal. He won six League medals
and three F.A.I. Cup runners-up medals, Munster Cup medals, Shield medals
and Top Four medals. During that time he gained
fourteen international caps with Ireland and, in 1972/73, his greatest
honour - the Football
Personality of the Year Award.
When his playing career was over, Alfie moved into football management and in 1982 he was
appointed manager of the new Waterford United club. In 1984/85 the
club won the League Cup and in 1986 reached the Cup final and qualified
for European competition. He managed the Kilkenny club for a
number of years when his tenure with Waterford came to an end. In
1994 he received the Merit Award of the Professional Footballer's
Association and in 1997 he won the Soccer Writers of Ireland Award for
his forty years service to Irish soccer. Alfie is a successful
businessman in his native city where he owns a thriving sports shop and
three public houses.
International appearances (14);
1962, v.Austria, Iceland; 1964, v.Spain (2); 1966, v.Spain; 1968,
v.Poland (2), Austria, Denmark; 1969, v.Czechoslovakia, Spain; 1970,
v.Poland; 1971, v.Austria; 1973, v.Poland.
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