Edo Benetti (2 December 1941 – 3 March 2025) 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 ...

player who played for

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

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). Benetti was recruited from

Wonthaggi Wonthaggi is a town located south east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland Highway, South Gippsland and Bass Highway, Victoria, Bass highways, in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Known originally f ...

in the South Gippsland Football League. He was the league's leading goalkicker in 1958 and 1959, played in Wonthaggi's premiership side in 1959 and won the league's

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 ...

award in 1959 and 1960. He played at

full-forward Full-forward is a position in Australian rules football and Gaelic football with a key focus on kicking goals. The Coleman Medal is awarded to the player, often a full-forward, who has kicked the most goals in an Australian Football League seaso ...

and on the

half-forward flank In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-forward line refers to a position on the field of play. 3 players are positioned in the half-forward line, a left and right half-forward flank player, as well as a centre half-forward. A hal ...

for the Tigers, kicking seven goals in his nine-game VFL career. Benetti returned to Wonthaggi for a season in 1963 then, in 1964, played briefly for

Yarraville Yarraville is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area. Yarraville recorded a population of 15,636 at the . Yarraville i ...

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 ...

before a back injury prematurely ended his playing career.

References

* Hogan P: ''The Tigers Of Old'', Richmond FC, (Melbourne), 1996.

External links

* 1941 births Richmond Football Club players Yarraville Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian people of Italian descent Sportspeople of Italian descent {{AFL-bio-1940s-stub 2025 deaths