Carlton signed Deacon in March 1941, one day before his residential address in Preston, which had previously been unallotted, became part of Fitzroy's zone.

Deacon was held in extremely high regard throughout the league for his quality key position play in the years immediately following the war.

In 1945, despite having played only half of the season, the Age sportswriter Percy Beames lauded Deacon's "great versatility and sustained brilliance through each game", and said he was perhaps the best key player since the early days of Laurie Nash.

[2] Deacon was also noted as a very fair player, and one of the few remembered for gentlemanly behaviour in the notoriously violent 1945 VFL Grand Final – when he helped his 17-year-old opponent Ron Clegg, who had been concussed in a behind-the-play incident, first to face the right direction to take a free kick, then to protect him from joining the outbreaking violence.

[9] Deacon died of a heart attack at age 51 on 3 January 1974 while on holiday at Balnarring despite the desperate efforts of his Preston team-mate, Pat Foley, to revive him.