Neil C. Bencraft (8 December 1924 – 11 October 2010) 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 ...

player and coach with the

Sandringham Football Club The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed The Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne which was formed in 1929 and plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL) which was formerly called the Victorian Football Association ...

in the

Victorian Football Association 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 ...

. Bencraft, a rover originally from Sandringham, played briefly for the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

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 ...

during the 1944 season, playing a total of two senior games. When the VFA resumed competition in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

, Bencraft played for Sandringham, where he played from 1945 until 1952, and again in 1956. He was a notable member of the club's inaugural premiership in

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

, kicking the winning goal in the club's one-point preliminary final against Williamstown (in which it had come back from a 40-point three-quarter time deficit), then kicking the last goal in its seven-point Grand Final win against

Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...

. He was also a member of the 1947 Grand Final team. Bencraft was appointed senior coach of Sandringham in 1958, and coached there for five years. He led the club to two Grand Finals, including the

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

premiership – in which the club came from behind to win the Grand Final by one point, after trailing

Moorabbin Moorabbin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 15 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Moorabbin recorded a population of 6,287 at the . Most of the ea ...

by 44 points at three quarter time. It was his last year in a five-season stint as coach, although he was called on again in 1974 for one more year. Bencraft also had great success as Sandringham's Thirds coach, leading the team to five premierships in twelve seasons; he retired at the end of 1983, frustrated by the fact that the Thirds had been altered from an Under-19s competition to an Under-18s competition that season. Both the main grandstand at

Trevor Barker Beach Oval Trevor Barker Beach Oval, currently known under naming rights as the Wilson Storage Trevor Barker Beach Oval, is an Australian rules football ground in Beach Road, on the border between Hampton and Sandringham, Victoria. Most commonly known as B ...

and the Sandringham Best and Fairest award are named after Bencraft, and he is a member of the club's Hall of Fame. He earned his primary living working as a butcher.

References

*
Australian Football: Zebras Back From The Brink
* Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.

External links

DemonWiki profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bencraft, Neil 1924 births Melbourne Football Club players Sandringham Football Club players Sandringham Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) 2010 deaths