Kiwi targetman spent a year in SA1 after Kenny Jackett brought him to the club
When Swansea City paid £300k for Rory Fallon, most Swans' fans were very intrigued to see what exactly we were getting for our money. It was during a time when we were, essentially, spending our way out of League One (people forget about that period in our meteoric rise), and we had become accustomed to seeing the Swans "spending big" - bringing in Kevin McLeod (£150k and no, not of Grand Designs fame), Leon Knight (£200kish), Tom Williams (£175k) and Kevin Amankwaah (£250k).
These were all relatively big fees at the time, and I do remember seeing a graphic showing that we were easily the biggest spenders in League One at the time - we gambled on success to a point and boy how it's paid off. Despite replacing Fallon with Pawel Abbott.
Fallon started life in Yorkshire playing for Barnsley, where he went through the YTS programme. After playing 52 games (scoring 11 times) for the Tykes, as well as suffering an eleven game goalless loan period with Shrewsbury, then-Swindon manager Andy King saw enough in the New Zealander to sign him for an undisclosed fee.
This is really where people started to notice him, but not straight away. Originally, he struggled to break into the Swindon first team and was playing second fiddle to Tommy Mooney (remember him?), and he found himself loaned out to Yeovil towards the end of the 2004/05 season. He scored on his debut for the Glovers, but failed to register a goal for the rest of the campaign - he did finish the season with a bang though - being sent off for kicking Huddersfield's David Mirfin in the face which saw him pick up a ban which extended into the first two games of the following season.
Clearly something changed for Fallon (largely, the departure of Sam Parkin), as the next season he scored 12 goals in 25 games for Swindon before the Swans came calling. Kenny Jackett clearly viewed the tall forward as an ideal foil for our trickier players, and out came the chequebook.
Fallon's first six months were pretty inauspicious from what I remember (5 goals from 20 appearances), but he went and did this in the League One Playoff Final that year against Barnsley:
Not a bad way to endear yourself to the fans, even if the day would end in heartbreak after Tate's penalty was saved and Barnsley, not the Swans, were promoted to the Championship. The next year Fallon impressed in fits and starts but still managed to bag eight goals in twenty-four appearances (10 as a sub), and this was enough to draw the attention of Plymouth Argyle, who, almost exactly a year after we paid in the region of £300k for the striker, reimbursed us and took him south.
He seemed to settle at Plymouth and after scoring once in 15 games in his first six months there he then spent the best part of four full seasons at the Pilgrims, where he drifted in an out of first team contention. He never really showed anything which would justify his hefty price tag, and by the 2010/11 season he found himself being loaned out to Ipswich, having scored 22 goals in 149 games.
It was around this time that Fallon drew attention for claiming he'd rejected a move to Southend as "he was awaiting instructions from the Lord" as to where he should play his football. Each to their own, but at least God doesn't appear to endorse Paul Sturrock's style of football. Rory is a big believer in Christianity, and is involved with Faith & Football, a charity set up in 2002 by Linvoy Primus & Darren Moore.
In August 2011 he returned to Yeovil and after a short trial was awarded a one month contract. Somewhat depressingly, he featured in all five of Yeovil's games but was still released at the end of the month. Harsh? I can't possibly say, but he did manage to secure himself a move to Scotland with Aberdeen the willing suitors.
At Pittodrie Fallon managed to appease those who grew displeased with a lack of league goals (two in twenty-five, although most of these appearances came off the bench) by performing significantly better in cup competitions. He'd already scored three goals in the 11/12 Scottish Cup when he produced this in the Semi-Final against Hibs:
Even better than the Playoff final one? Hard to say! That is an absolute stinker though. Hibs went on to win 2-1 but that's the kind of goal which will live on in the minds of fans much longer than any memory of a heartbreaking loss.
Last season produced more of the same for Fallon, and he managed one goal in ten starts (plus five sub appearances) in the league - form which didn't inspire Aberdeen to offer him a new deal and he found himself free to find a new club. After (I assume) getting the nod from the big guy upstairs St Johnstone secured his signature and Fallon now finds himself training alongside Swansea youngster Gwion Edwards (on loan at the Saints), as well as Nigel Hasselbaink (Jimmy Floyd's nephew) and Steven MacLean - formerly of Cardiff, amongst others.
Fallon featured in St Johnstone's Europa League Qualifier 2nd leg against Minsk (coming on as a sub in extra time), and ended up featuring in the penalty shoot-out where he kept his nerve to slot the ball home; which is more than can be said for his team-mates, as their profligacy when it mattered most saw them exit the competition.
Something which no doubt brings a broader smile to Fallon's face than either of the above goals is one he scored for New Zealand. After playing for English youth sides (courtesy of dual citizenship), an old FIFA rule seemed to state he wouldn't be able to "switch" and play for New Zealand (the country of his birth) but after that rule was rescinded in 2009 he was able to make his debut for "The All Whites".
He's gone on to make fourteen appearances for New Zealand, scoring three goals, but one in particular will stick in his memory. Shortly after the change in legislation Fallon made his debut against Jordan in an international friendly (opening his international account to boot), and that served as a nice warm-up to the main event - a playoff against Bahrain for a place in the 2010 World Cup.
With the score still at 0-0 and half-time in the second leg approaching, Fallon rose highest to meet a corner and head his team in front. The second half was played out without any further goals being registered, and after the small matter of a penalty save from All Whites keeper Mark Paston New Zealand found themselves en route to the World Cup for only the second time in their history. No doubt Fallon was delighted, and it'll also have brought a smile to the face of his father Kevin, who managed the national side in the eighties.
It seems Fallon has a knack for scoring both flashy goals and important goals, and there may well be a tale or two left to write in the story of his career. Still only 31, it could be that there's more to come from Fallon and you may even spot him in South Wales - he married a Swansea girl!
What's that saying? "You can take the boy out of Wales..."