Allan Hopkins (24 May 1904 – 2 July 2001) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er in the (then)

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

Football

He started off his career with

Footscray Football Club The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

before they joined the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1925. He had played in the club's 1923 and 1924 premiership sides in the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFA). A brilliant centreman, he was awarded the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

retrospectively in 1989 for the 1930 season while playing with the Footscray Bulldogs, and won the Bulldogs'

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

in 1931. He went on to win the VFA premiership with

Yarraville Football Club The Yarraville Football Club, nicknamed the Eagles, was an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville. It founded in 1903 and competed in Victorian Football Association (VFA) from 1928 until going into recess in ...

in 1935 as

captain-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make change ...

. He died aged 97 in 2001. At that time he was the oldest player in the game's history, but was later surpassed by Carlton's Keith Rae who lived to 104.

References

External links

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AFL Hall of Fame

1904 births 2001 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Brownlow Medal winners Western Bulldogs players Western Bulldogs coaches Yarraville Football Club players Yarraville Football Club coaches Footscray Football Club (VFA) players Charles Sutton Medal winners Place of birth missing People from Footscray, Victoria {{AFL-bio-1904-stub