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I remember the highly skilled Paul Sproule very well, starting at Essendon in 1968 transferring to Richmond in 1972 and became a dual premiership player with the Tigers, retiring in 1975. He returned 10 years later in 1985 to coach the club for one year before he became a victim of the club's 'rotating' coach policy and was shown the door after just one year, courtesy of Graeme Richmond and his henchmen.
 
My source for Paul Sproule's passing is a private Facebook group, which I can't link.

The only newspaper source is The Mercury, which is paywalled.

But here's the search link which shows the Mercury article concerned at the top. Also a screenshot of same.

Screen Shot 08-27-25 at 11.29 AM.PNG
 

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Mr Sproule passed Tuesday August 26th, for those updating his wiki page
His younger brother (Michael) died on the same day, which seems rather incredible, and makes it doubly sad for the family: https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/death-notices/sproule-michael/6320819/
 
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Collingwood star John Henderson died yesterday: https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1890755/vale-john-henderson
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Oliver G
As the article suggested - i can remember when he was Capt/Coach of Yarraville
 

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@RedmanWasHere I have sent over all the relevant Byron Guthrie info.


I saw you'd updated all relevant pages to reflect relationships to Byron.

Hopefully it's also reflected in the next stats book.
 
This came up as part of a family history search - no I dont think I can claim him

Peter ' Spin ' Bowler 92 long time WAFL administrator and innovator

According to this he developed the idea of the 25m and 50m lines for Aussie Rules

Vale Peter ‘Spin’ Bowler
50 metre line innovator passes away
Long time influential WAFL administrator and the man behind the now standard 50m line, Peter Bowler, has sadly left us at the ripe old age of 92. Bowler, a man with a genuine love for the game, served as the competition’s general manager from 1971 until 1985, during a sometimes-tumultuous period of significant evolution in the professionalism of the game, on and off the field

During his tenure, Bowler was at the forefront in overseeing many changes and “innovations” that have benefitted the game ever since in promotion, marketing and optics. The introduction of the 50m and 25m line arcs at either end of the ground, is perhaps the most recognisable and was a direct suggestion of Bowler’s adopted permanently in 1983


Its very new so I hope I can get a proper DOB and DOD
 

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I was thinking about this as I recently discovered it.

Although most famous as an on-baller, Kilmurray began his career as an old-fashioned goalsneak. People probably do not know his role in denying the famous 1953 South Fremantle combination a 22-game winning streak. Eleven days after his nineteenth birthday Kilmurray kicked five of East Perth’s nine goals in heavy rain and the Royals won by seven points, whilst Bernie Naylor in his record season was held to 2.2. Whilst the conditions could not possibly have favoured Naylor, he had kicked 8.5 in similar conditions against the Royals earlier in the year — on the very same day as Footscray held Fitzroy to 1.0.

Kilmurray would kick more than sixty goals in 1954 and 1955, being third in the league both seasons for teams that went 8–12 and 7–13.

It’s ironic that East Perth — then an archetypal mid-table club — twice in four seasons ended long South Fremantle winning streaks. In 1950 — East Perth’s worst season between 1930 and 1963 with a 6–15 record — they were off the bottom only by percentage but held off a 15–0 South Fremantle combination that was widely predicted to have a perfect season.
 
I was thinking about this as I recently discovered it.

Although most famous as an on-baller, Kilmurray began his career as an old-fashioned goalsneak. People probably do not know his role in denying the famous 1953 South Fremantle combination a 22-game winning streak. Eleven days after his nineteenth birthday Kilmurray kicked five of East Perth’s nine goals in heavy rain and the Royals won by seven points, whilst Bernie Naylor in his record season was held to 2.2. Whilst the conditions could not possibly have favoured Naylor, he had kicked 8.5 in similar conditions against the Royals earlier in the year — on the very same day as Footscray held Fitzroy to 1.0.

Kilmurray would kick more than sixty goals in 1954 and 1955, being third in the league both seasons for teams that went 8–12 and 7–13.

It’s ironic that East Perth — then an archetypal mid-table club — twice in four seasons ended long South Fremantle winning streaks. In 1950 — East Perth’s worst season between 1930 and 1963 with a 6–15 record — they were off the bottom only by percentage but held off a 15–0 South Fremantle combination that was widely predicted to have a perfect season.
Thanks very much for this information about the late, great Ted "Square" Kilmurray, mianfei.
You're not wrong about East Perth being a midtable club in the late-1940s to mid-1950s.
In the days of the WAFL "final four", the Royals finished fifth in seven of nine years between 1947 and 1955.
In some of those years (well before my time), EP just missed the finals, while in others there was a massive gap between fourth and fifth.
A case in point was 1955 when the Royals (fifth) were six games and 18.32% behind fourth-placed West Perth.
However, the arrival of Jack Sheedy as captain-coach from East Fremantle saw EP win the 1956 flag, with Kilmurray (who was to win the 1958 Sandover Medal) an integral part of the Royals' golden era that saw them play in six successive grand finals (three premierships).
 

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