Robert James Beecroft (born 11 January 1952) is a former

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 who played for the

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of City of Fitzroy, Fitzroy, the club is base ...

in the

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 ...

(VFL),

Swan Districts Football Club The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, Western Australia, ...

in the

Western Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WANFL) and the

Woodville Football Club Woodville Football Club was an Australian rules football club that competed in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) from 1964 to 1990, when it merged in 1991 with the West Torrens Football Club to form the Woodville-West Torre ...

in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL). Beecroft made his debut with Swan Districts in 1970, playing 126 games as a ruckman, being named

All Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

for his performance in the

1972 Perth Carnival The 1972 Perth Carnival was the 18th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian football interstate competition. It was the last of the traditional single-city round-robin carnivals in the residential qualification era of ...

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 returned to the SANFL with Woodville, where he played 79 premiership games, kicking 203 goals. Beecroft finished his career at the

Encounter Bay Football Club The Encounter Bay Football Club, nicknamed the Eagles, is an Australian rules football club based in Encounter Bay, South Australia, that plays in the Great Southern Football League. Club history Australian rules football on the Fleurieu Pen ...

, where he coached the Bays to the 1989 premiership.

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* * * 1952 births Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Fitzroy Football Club players Woodville Football Club players Swan Districts Football Club players Western Australian State of Origin players All-Australians (1953–1988) Living people {{AFL-bio-1950s-stub