dare initially played league football for fitzroy in the victorian football league (vfl), where he played 70 games between 1968 and 1974. he moved to west torrens in the south australian national football league (sanfl) in 1975, most notable for his actions in the round 15, 1975, match against west adelaide, when dare managed to jump the fence and hide amongst the crowd to prevent torrens from being penalised in a head count. he returned to fitzroy in 1977, and played only two more senior games before retiring from playing.