Dennis Keith "Fred" Phillis (born 9 September 1948) 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

Glenelg Football Club The Glenelg Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or the Bays, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the South Australian National Football League. Their home ground is Stratarama Stadium (formerly Glenelg Oval), located in the so ...

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).

Background

Born Dennis Keith Phillis, his schoolmates likened him to noted English

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

pace bowler

Fred Trueman Frederick Sewards Trueman, (6 February 1931 – 1 July 2006) was an English cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. He had professional status and later became an author and broadcaster. Acknowled ...

. He is almost exclusively known by his nickname. Phillis is the brother of fellow Glenelg player and businessman Wayne Phillis.

History

Phillis began his senior career with Glenelg in the SANFL in 1966 as a Centre half back under the coaching of Len Fitzgerald. He was soon moved to Centre half-forward and later

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 ...

by incoming 1967 coach

Neil Kerley Donald Neil Kerley (20 February 1934 – 29 June 2022) was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He is best known for taking three clubs to four South Australian National Football League (SANFL) premierships over three decades as both a p ...

. This lateral thinking paid off with Phillis kicking a then SANFL record of 137 goals in 1969. He polled 18 votes in the 1969

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Willi ...

to be the first player to win the medal having played chiefly at full-forward for the season. He played in Glenelg's 1973 Grand Final win over

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

at the

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

, and in losing Grand Finals for Glenelg against Sturt in 1969 and 1974, Norwood in 1975, and

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

in 1977 and 1981. Quirkily enough, in the 1973 grand final win by Glenelg over North Adelaide, he failed to kick a goal. In perhaps Glenelg's most memorable non-finals game, Phillis scored 18 goals at Glenelg Oval in Round 18 of the 1975 SANFL season as part of the team's record-breaking 49.23 (317) to 11.13 (79) win over Central District, and kicked his 100th goal for the season during the match. Phillis is the highest goal scorer in the history of the Glenelg club, having kicked 836 goals in his 268-game, 14-year career, an average of 59.8 goals per season and 3.12 goals per match. He also kicked 48 goals in twelve night series matches for Glenelg, bringing his overall total to 884 goals from 280 matches in Glenelg colours. This is all the more remarkable when considering that former league leading goal kickers Jack Owens (1927–1928, 1932) and Colin Churchett (1948–1951) are also Glenelg champions. , Phillis is third on the all time SANFL goal scoring list behind legendary North Adelaide full-forward Ken Farmer (1,417 from 1929–41), and Port Adelaide champion Tim Evans (992 from 1975–86): Owens sits 4th on the list with 827 goals, while Churchett is 15th with 555. After retiring as a player, Phillis continued to pursue his chosen career as an architect.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillis, Dennis 1948 births Living people Glenelg Football Club players Magarey Medal winners Australian rules footballers from South Australia South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees