Simon Beasley
2011
Player/Administrator 1975 - 1989
University Amateur Football Club
From humble beginnings as a teenager in University’s Colts team, Simon Beasley went on to become a star of the WAFL and one of Western Australia’s proudest football exports.
It only took one season for Simon’s talents to shine through in the WA Amateur Football League. After kicking 68 goals and being crowned the A Colts leading goal kicker, Simon earned selection in the 1976 State Team which competed in the National Carnival in Adelaide. Simon won the teams’ best player award and was named in the All-Australian side, his outstanding performances at a national level earning him a Full Blue from the University of Western Australia. Simon continued playing for University the following year and was again recognized as one of Western Australia’s outstanding footballers with his second successive selection in the State Team.
After 51 games for University Simon was recruited to the Swan Districts Football Club where he remained for four seasons and 82 games. He continued to be a prolific goal scorer in the WAFL, kicking 295 goals in total and tying with Claremont’s Warren Ralph for the leagues’ leading goal kicking award in 1980 with 82 goals. The following year in 1981 he kicked 119 goals, the first time he broke the prestigious “ton” and also won the Simpson Medal for best afield in Western Australia’s clash with Victoria, kicking six goals five.
Beasley, a stockbroker and later a bookmaker, moved to Melbourne at the end of 1981 and was snapped up Footscray. He played 154 games for Footscray in the VFL and kicked 575 goals including 105 goals in 1985, earning him the Coleman Medal - awarded to the leading goal kicker in the VFL and now AFL. In 1988 he would kick 82 goals and overtake Kelvin Templeton as Footscray’s, and now the Western Bulldogs, all time leading goal kicker. In May of 2002 Simon Beasley was recognized by the Western Bulldogs as their greatest ever full forward when he was awarded the starting position in their Team of the Century.