Eric Sarich (born 22 February 1941) 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 with

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 ...

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). He also played for four clubs in the

West 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). Sarich, a wingman and half forward, was a noted tagger throughout his career which began at South Fremantle in 1960. He struggled to get games in his two seasons and transferred to

Swan Districts 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, an eastern suburb ...

in 1962, after being lured by coach Haydn Bunton. He played at Swan Districts for three seasons before moving to Victoria to take up an offer from Fitzroy. His deal with Fitzroy fell apart at the last minute and he instead found himself at South Melbourne where he would play beside

Bob Skilton Robert John Skilton (born 8 November 1938) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Playing as a rover, Skilton is one of only four players to have won the Brownlow Medal three times— ...

. With South Melbourne, Sarich managed a four-goal haul against Melbourne in just his third VFL game and from 1966 to 1968 he was a regular fixtures in the seniors, something he had struggled to do in the WANFL. He returned home in 1969 after accepting an offer to captain-coach

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 ...

, who were coming off their worst season since the club's debut in 1898. He did not play until the seventh round because Swan Districts still had a legitimate hold on his services and East Fremantle had to pay a transfer fee of $5,000. Nonetheless, Old Easts improved on their efforts of the previous season by winning eight games under Sarich in the 1969 season but were still four wins plus percentage from playing finals. When the 1970 season fell away after a big opening win, Sarich was sacked as coach and cleared to Subiaco – only one month after he had captained the winning team in an interstate trial match. The following year he rejoined South Melbourne for one final season.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarich, Eric 1941 births Sydney Swans players South Fremantle Football Club players Subiaco Football Club players Swan Districts Football Club players East Fremantle Football Club players East Fremantle Football Club coaches Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia