Arthur Olliver (10 December 1916 – 31 May 1988) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er in the (then)

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 coached successfully in the then

Western Australian National 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, ...

(WANFL). A champion Footscray ruckman over 16 years with the club, Olliver held the games record for the Bulldogs prior to

Ted Whitten Edward James Whitten Sr. OAM (27 July 1933 – 17 August 1995) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Born and raised into a working-class family in Footscray, Whit ...

. In seven seasons as captain-coach Olliver got the Bulldogs into the finals three times, and saw them narrowly miss out twice. One of Footscray's longest serving players, Olliver played 272 VFL games and kicked 354 goals for the club. Olliver was appointed captain-coach of

New Norfolk New Norfolk is a town on the Derwent River (Tasmania), River Derwent, in the south-east of Tasmania, Australia. At the Census in Australia#2011, 2011 census, New Norfolk had a population of 5,543. Situated north-west of Hobart on the Lyell Hi ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, where he stayed for three years. In 1951 he won his club's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award, and captain-coached the Tasmanian state team. Olliver's last involvement in top-level football was as non-playing coach of

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 exis ...

in the WANFL between 1960 and 1963. In his first season, the Cardinals won their first WANFL premiership for nine seasons, but they were not able to keep up this form, finishing fifth, third and fifth in an eight-club competition for his final three seasons. In 2003 Olliver was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

. He has also been inducted into the Footscray/Western Bulldogs Hall of Fame and was named on the interchange in their Team of the Century.Hall of Fame

References

External links

*
AFL: Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olliver, Arthur 1916 births 1988 deaths Western Bulldogs players Western Bulldogs coaches Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Charles Sutton Medal winners New Norfolk Football Club players New Norfolk Football Club coaches West Perth Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Melbourne People from Footscray, Victoria