Andrew Douglas Purser (born 31 October 1958) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the

Footscray Football Club The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) and for the East Fremantle Football Club and

West Perth Football Club The West Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is an Australian rules football club located in Joondalup, Western Australia. West Perth competes in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW) and is the oldest exi ...

in the

Western Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WAFL). A ruckman, Purser was a premiership player with

East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

in 1979. Purser was one of several West Australian footballers brought over to Footscray in the 1980s by general manager and former Carlton administrator Shane O'Sullivan; others included

Simon Beasley Simon Francis Beasley (born 26 July 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Swan Districts Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and for the Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football Leagu ...

Murray Rance Murray Douglas Rance (born 25 January 1962) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Footscray and West Coast in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the late 1980s. He was a key position player and started his career at ...

, Sharks teammate Jim Sewell and

Brad Hardie Bradley John Hardie (born 10 October 1962) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented , , and in the Australian Football League (AFL) as well as in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Stocky built with bright red hair, Ha ...

. Purser was among 15 new players to debut for Footscray in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

and although undersized he quickly gained a reputation as one of the finest ruckmen in the VFL. In just his second season, he won the

Charles Sutton Medal The Charles Sutton Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged best and fairest for the Western Bulldogs throughout the Victorian Football League/ Australian Football League season. The medal is named a ...

for Footscray's best and fairest player. However, by the end of

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, the physical burden of shouldering the main ruck responsibilities had taken its toll on Purser, saying years later that he felt he was "running out of steam". His main career as a stockbroker was also seriously affected by the

Black Monday Black Monday refers to specific Mondays when undesirable or turbulent events have occurred. It has been used to designate massacres, military battles, and stock market crashes. Historic events *1209, Dublin – when a group of 500 recently arriv ...

crash in October, which eventually prompted him and his wife Jenny to return to Western Australia, despite the best efforts of Footscray to keep him at the club. In a remarkable testament to his durability, Purser had missed only one out of a possible 113 senior VFL games during his time at Footscray. After a brief stint at , Purser decided to retire at just 28 years of age to pursue a career in the finance industry. He has been running his own finance business in

Subiaco, Western Australia Subiaco (known colloquially as Subi) is an inner- western suburb of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It is approximately west of Perth's central business district, in the City of Subiaco local government area. Historically a working-cl ...

Personal

Purser's son,

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, ...

, is a former

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Perth Arena, ...

development player.Perth Wildcats Guarantee Ben Purser 2011 Involvement
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References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Purser, Andrew 1958 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Charles Sutton Medal winners East Fremantle Football Club players West Perth Football Club players Western Bulldogs players Western Australian State of Origin players