Francis Bourke

Francis Bourke
Personal information
Date of birth	(1947-04-02) 2 April 1947 (age 69)
Place of birth	Caulfield, Victoria
Original team(s)	Nathalia
Debut	13 May 1967, Richmond vs. Hawthorn, at MCG
Height / weight	185cm / 84kg
Playing career¹
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1967–1981	Richmond	300 (71)
Coaching career
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1982–1983	Richmond	46 (26–20–0)
¹ Playing statistics correct to the end of 1983.
Career highlights
Richmond premiership player 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1980 Richmond Team of the Century Jack Dyer Medal 1970 Richmond Captain 1976–1977 Richmond Coach 1982–1983 Richmond Life Member 1976 Richmond Hall of Fame, inducted 2002 Richmond "Immortal", conferred 2005 100 Tiger Treasures "Brave Act of the Century" Australian Football Hall of Fame, inducted 2002 AFL Team of the Century Interstate Games: 13 Victorian captain 1977, 1980

Francis William Bourke (born 2 April 1947) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach who represented Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1967 and 1981, and coached the club in 1982 and 1983.

A key figure in a successful period at Richmond, Bourke is a five-time premiership player who was honoured with selection in the AFL's Team of the Century. His is the only family to have provided three generations of players for the Richmond senior team: Bourke's father, Frank, played 16 matches in the 1940s and his son, David played 85 games between 1995 and 2001. In 2009 The Australian newspaper nominated Bourke as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win a Brownlow Medal.

Bourke's father, Frank, was serving in the RAAF and on leave in Melbourne when he played a solitary game for Richmond in 1943. A tall (193 cm) and lean (85 kg) full forward with an excellent reputation in country football, Frank returned to the city after the war and resume his playing career with Richmond. In the opening weeks of the 1946 season Frank kicked five or more goals six times in the first seven matches to lead the VFL goalkicking table. Injury curtailed further progress. Bourke was born the following year in Caulfield.

Bourke was raised on the family's dairy farm, about 40 km north west of Shepparton in northern Victoria, where his father was appointed captain-coach of his home town team, Nathalia. He attended Assumption College, a Catholic school with a reputation as a nursery for great footballing talent. In the following decades, Assumption was to produce dozens of footballers for the VFL/AFL and Bourke would go on to be, arguably, its greatest sporting product. His success was achieved despite a severe setback at age 14 when doctors detected a heart murmur and recommended that he give up playing sport.

After a season in Assumption's first team in 1963, Bourke left school aged 16 and returned to Nathalia. He turned out for the local team, following in the footsteps of his father by playing as a key forward. However, the young Bourke was physically very different from his father, standing 185 cm and eventually filling out to a solid, muscular 85 kg. In his first senior season, Bourke was the team's leading goalkicker and followed up by winning the club best and fairest in 1965.

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