Vic Thorp

Victor Charles Thorp (25 October 1890–1 October 1941) was an Australian rules footballer for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1910 and 1925.

Nicknamed "Flippa", Thorp was the first true champion player to emerge at Richmond after their admission to the VFL in 1908. A natural defender who showed great judgement, superior ball skills and fierce concentration, Thorp was considered the best player in the game at his position, full back. His battles with Collingwood forward Dick Lee were a highlight of the era. Thorp was one of many great players who grew up in the shadow of the Tigers' Punt Road Oval and served the club loyally for many years, thus influencing the development of the parochial culture of the Richmond club.

As a child, Thorp attended the Yarra Park School (now defunct), just a few hundred metres to the north of Punt Road Oval and played his early football there. After leaving school in 1907, he joined Beverley, a club in the Metropolitan Football Association. At this time, the VFL didn't conduct a reserves competition, so district clubs (such as Beverley) acted as a de facto reserves teams. Also non-existent was any form of zoning, so Thorp was free to accept an invitation to trial with St Kilda. The Saints made one of the great errors in rejecting Thorp, who went to Richmond in 1910. In its early seasons in the VFL, Richmond frantically turned over dozens of players looking for a combination that could compete with the best in the competition. It would prove a long, drawn out process. While most failed and disappeared quickly, the Tigers knew immediately they had a find in the nineteen-year-old with the swarthy complexion.