Bradley Bootsma (born 30 December 1972) is a former

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 who played for the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

. He played as a half-back flanker or

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Bootsma was recruited from South Fremantle in the

West 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) and is the father of former AFL footballer

Josh Bootsma Josh Bootsma (born 22 February 1993) is an Australian rules footballer currently listed with in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). He previously played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), but had his ...

AFL career

The Dockers surprised many when they selected Bootsma with their only pick in the 2000 pre season draft (2nd overall). Bootsma was recruited at the late age of 27. After spending the first seven rounds of the 2000 season playing in the WAFL with South Fremantle, Bootsma was selected to make his debut in Round 8 against Collingwood at the

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was ...

in a rare (for AFL) Monday night game. A more than serviceable game saw Bootsma end up playing played 13 games in his debut season. Bootsma played the first 10 games of 2001 and had more than 20 possessions in 5 of them. However, the tumultuous round 10 match against Richmond,

Ben Allan Benjamin Thomas Allan (born 15 October 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and for the Claremont Football Club in the West ...

's first as caretaker coach after

Damian Drum Damian Kevin Drum (born 28 July 1960) is an Australian politician who has represented Murray and Nicholls in the Australian House of Representatives since the 2016 federal election as a member of The Nationals. Drum served as the Assistant Mi ...

was sacked, would be Bootsma's last, due initially to a knee injury and later he was unable to break into the team eager to rebuild for the future. He would remain on the Fremantle list for the 2002 season, but did not play another senior game. He retired from AFL football at the end of 2002.

WAFL career

Bootsma gave great service to South Fremantle before and after his time at Fremantle. In 1997 he helped South to win the WAFL Premiership and he won the best and fairest award in 1999. On his return to South Fremantle in 2002 he was awarded the captaincy which he held until he retired from the WAFL before the start of the 2005 WAFL season.

GSFL (North Albany)

Working in Albany as a Football Development Officer, Bootsma joined the

North Albany Football Club The North Albany Football and Sporting Club, more often referred to as North Albany, is an Australian rules football club located in Albany, Western Australia. Nicknamed the roos, the club play in the Great Southern Football League, with home ...

and played for the club until 2009 and remains in a coaching role. He was an integral part of the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 premiership sides, winning the Alan Barnett Medal for the best on ground in 2008. He has been coach of North Albany Football Club since 2007 and coached the club to premierships in 2007 and 2008. In 2009 the club made the Grand Final however lost to arch rivals Royals.

Family

Bootsma's son

Josh Josh is a masculine given name, frequently a diminutive (hypocorism) of the given names Joshua or Joseph, though since the 1970s, it has increasingly become a full name on its own. It may refer to: People A–J * "Josh", an early pseudonym of S ...

is also a footballer, and was drafted by the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Mel ...

in the 2011 AFL Draft., before being sacked by the Blues over disciplinary issues in June 2014.

References

External links

*
WAFL playing statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bootsma, Brad 1972 births Living people Fremantle Football Club players South Fremantle Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia Sportsmen from Western Australia Australian people of Dutch descent