Bob Beecroft
| Personal information |
| Birth |
11 January 1952 |
| Recruited from |
Woodville |
| Height and weight |
191 cm / 92 kg |
| Playing career¹ |
| Debut |
1976, Fitzroy vs. , at |
| Team(s) |
Fitzroy (1976-80)
96 games, 291 goals
|
| ¹ Statistics to end of 1980 season |
| Career highlights |
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Bob Beecroft (born 11 January 1952) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Fitzroy in the Australian Football League, Swan Districts in the Western Australian Football League and Woodville in the South Australian National Football League during the 1970s and 80s.
Beecroft made his debut with Swan Districts in 1970, playing 126 games as a ruckman, being named All Australian for his performance in the 1972 Perth Carnival and the Swan's Best and Fairest award. He played for Western Australia three years later and was recruited by Fitzroy for the following season.
As a key forward for the Lions, Beecroft topped their goalkicking list four times with a best of 87 goals in 1979 which was at the time a club record. He kicked 10 goals in a match twice and by the end of his short VFL career he had managed 291 goals.
He finished in the SANFL with Woodville, where he played 86 games, kicking 219 goals in 1986 before coaching Moonta & then Encounter Bay from 1988-1990 with a premiership in 1989.
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Bob Beecroft
(Swan Districts, Fitzroy, Woodville)
[Click to enlarge]
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| Swan Districts recruited Bob Beecroft from Williams as an eighteen year old in 1970. Beecroft had won Williams' senior fairest and best award the previous season and, playing mainly as a ruckman, he soon developed into a handy player for Swans. His best season in the black and white colours came in 1972 when he matched the best ruckmen in Australia at the Perth carnival, earning All Australian selection in the process. He also won the Swan Districts club champion award that same year.
Over the next few seasons, Beecroft's form fell away somewhat, and it was something of a surprise when he was selected in West Australia's team for the 1975 knock-out carnival clash with the VFL in Melbourne. However, he performed with considerable credit in a well beaten side, and this may have helped persuade Fitzroy, where he ventured in 1976, that he was a worthwhile acquisition. Beecroft spent five seasons with the Lions, playing 96 games and kicking 291 goals. Fitzroy played him mainly as a key forward, and he topped the club's goal kicking list on three occasions.
In 1981 Beecroft moved to South Australia where he joined Woodville. In five seasons at Oval Avenue he played 86 SANFL games and kicked 219 goals, topping the club's goal kicking list once.
Tough, persistent and reliable, he was perhaps better suited to the hurly-burly world of VFL football than the more skill-orientated Western Australian or South Australian manifestations of game. At any rate, he undoubtedly played his best football during his time in Melbourne, although his performances with Swans (for whom he played 126 games and booted 164 goals) were still deemed sufficiently noteworthy for him to secure selection in the club's official 'Team of the Twentieth Century'.
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