Desmond Norman Bethke (born 19 August 1943) 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 with

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

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).

Family

The son of Eric Otto Bethke (1914-1985), and Phyllis Ada Bethke (1917-), née Love, Desmond Norman Bethke was born at Netherby (near Nhill) on 19 August 1943. He married Janet Ray Boucher (1943-).

Football

Recruited from the

Horsham Football Club The Horsham Football & Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Demons'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in the city of Horsham, Victoria. The football team competes in the Wimmera Football League The Wimmera Football League ...

, he was granted six match permits in 1963 and, after playing with the South Melbourne First XVIII for the first six matches of the 1963 season, he returned to Horsham. He played all eighteen games for the South Melbourne First XVIII in the 1964 season, nine games in 1965, seven games in 1966, fourteen games in 1967, and two games in 1968. Bethke's last senior game was against Carlton, on 18 May 1968, at the

Lake Oval Lakeside Stadium is an Australian sports arena in the South Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. Comprising an athletics track and soccer stadium, it currently serves as the home ground and administrative base for association football club South M ...

in round 6 of the 1968 season. It was a torrid match, eventually won by Carlton, 12.11 (83) to 10.11 (71) — which withstood a vigorous second half comeback from South Melbourne (South scoring 6.8 (44) to Carlton's 2.5 (17) — during which the controversial, and struggling-for-form

Eric Sarich Eric Sarich (born 22 February 1941) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also played for four clubs in the West Australian National Football League (WANFL). Sarich, ...

broke

Bryan Quirk Bryan Quirk (born 26 December 1946) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League. He was recruited from Morwell Football Club in the then Latrobe Valley Football League. He was Collingwood fan as a child. Quirk m ...

's jaw, with a kick to the head, in the first quarter (Quirk was out for seven weeks as a consequence of the injury).

Town Clerk

From 1980 to 1990, Bethke was the

Town Clerk A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a To ...

of the

City of Melbourne The City of Melbourne is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. In 2018, the city has an area of and had a population of 169,961. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. The ci ...

Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal

He was one of 6,870 Australians awarded the

Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (french: link=no, Médaille du jubilé d'argent de la reine Elizabeth II) is a commemorative medal created in 1977 to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The medal is p ...

in 1977, and was awarded for his services to the South Melbourne City Council.

Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)

He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, in the General Division (OAM) on 26 January 1996, "for service to local government and the community".Australia Day 1996 Honours: The Order of Australia: Awarded the Medal in the General Division (OAM), ''Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (Special)'', No.S12, (Friday, 26 January 1996), p.7.
/ref>

Footnotes

References

External links

* * Living people 1943 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Sydney Swans players Horsham Football Club players Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia {{AFL-bio-1940s-stub