Peter Bedford

Peter Lawrence Anthony "Wheels" Bedford (born 11 April 1947) is a former Australian Rules footballer and first-class cricketer. As a footballer, he is best known for his time at South Melbourne, where he won Victorian Football League's (VFL's) Brownlow Medal in 1970 as the fairest and the best in the competition.

Bedford began his football career at Christian Brothers College Victoria Parade, East Melbourne. He began his senior career in the Victorian Football Association, where he played at Port Melbourne Football Club. He was part of the Port Melbourne team which lost the controversial 1967 VFA Grand Final against Dandenong. He played 52 senior games with Port Melbourne during this phase of his career.

At the end of the 1967 football season, Bedford was approached by South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club Port Adelaide with an offer to move to South Australia to play for Port Adelaide as well as for the South Australian cricket team. South Australian cricket selector Sir Donald Bradman considered Bedford a leading candidate for the Australian cricket team and urged Bedford to accept the offer from Port Adelaide. However, he opted instead to stay in Melbourne and moved to VFL club South Melbourne.

He played for South Melbourne between 1968 and 1976, playing 178 games and kicking 325 goals. He was the Swans' Best & Fairest on five occasions, leading goalkicker three times and in 1970 he won a Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player. He played for the Swans as a rover but was also thrown forward to kick a goal when they needed it. He was South Melbourne's captain from 1973 until his departure in 1976, when he transferred to Carlton. He played at Carlton until mid-1978, then transferred back to Port Melbourne.