Bruce Tschirpig (born 11 October 1949) 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

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

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) during the 1970s. Tschirpig grew up on the family farm south of

Moorook, South Australia Moorook is a small town in the Australia, Australian state of South Australia, one of a series of towns surrounding lakes in the Riverland, Riverland region. Moorook was surveyed in 1922 on the left bank of the Murray River, River Murray where ...

, and attended Loxton High School. After moving to

Wentworth, New South Wales Wentworth is a small border town in the far south west of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It lies at the confluence of Australia's two most important rivers, the Darling and the Murray, the latter forming the border with the state of ...

, he won the McLeod Medal in 1969 and 1970 as the Best and Fairest player in the

Sunraysia Football League The Sunraysia Football and Netball League, also known simply as the SFNL is an Australian rules league in the Sunraysia district of north-west Victoria (Australia), Victoria and south-west New South Wales. History Australian Rules football ...

. This brought attention from Richmond. He made eight appearances in the

1971 VFL season The 1971 VFL season was the 75th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 April until 25 September, and comprised a 2 ...

which included a four-goal haul in a win over Carlton at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

to celebrate Roger Dean's 200th game. Although he played in Richmond's final home and away season fixture, Tschirpig was not called upon for the finals. He left for Latrobe the following season and while playing for the Tasmania club represented the state at the

1975 Knockout Carnival The 1975 Knockout Carnival was the 19th Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian football interstate competition. The tournament was won by Victoria. The 1975 carnival represented a significant change in format for the carnival. Prev ...

. At the end of the season competed in the prestigious

Burnie Gift The Burnie Gift is a professional footrace held in Burnie, Tasmania during an annual sports carnival, held on a grass track at West Park Oval on New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly th ...

, a handicap sprint, and finished second on 1 January 1976. Richmond lured him back in 1976 but he could only add two further games to his tally and finished his career in Western Australia where he played at

East Fremantle East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

References

*Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tschirpig, Bruce 1949 births Living people Richmond Football Club players East Fremantle Football Club players Perth Football Club players Latrobe Football Club players Australian rules footballers from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen