Good one! I didn't end up finding the father's death notice, so that is very handy. It certainly didn't add up that Phillip Francis could be on that electoral roll if he wasn't older than George Frederick Thomas, and the latter just wasn't likely to be old enough to have been playing for Northcote in 1912.I think you have found the right family and Phillip is ‘Bill’. The death notice for the father is in The Age on 13 May 1946 and mentions Bill, but not Phillip.
I’m thinking that Phillip was born at the latest in 1894, given that he is on the Electoral Roll in 1912. He’d have to be at least 18 to be on the Roll.
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So Bill/Phillip Francis must have been born well before the parents got married.
It would now be very surprising if he wasn't the footballer we're looking for. Tracking down exactly when he was born/died may be fairly tricky!
It's a bit of a longshot, but it just could be that this was his birth:
Since he was Phillip Francis Billett, and the mother was Elizabeth Mary Ann nee Francis it just might be a possibility!
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