Ross Thornton (born 23 October 1956) is a former

Australian rules 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 ...

footballer who played with

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

in the VFL during the 1980s. Thornton originally arrived at Fitzroy in 1975 but was unable to make the seniors so joined VFA club

Prahran Prahran (), also pronounced colloquially as Pran, is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City ...

. He returned to Fitzroy in 1980 and became a regular fixture in their defence for the rest of the decade, usually occupying a

back pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

from where he liked to run the ball up the ground. A personal highlight came in 1984 when he won Fitzroy'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. In 2003 he was selected in

's Team of the Century. Thornton appeared on the second season of ''

The Amazing Race Australia ''The Amazing Race Australia'' is an Australian adventure reality game show based on the international ''Amazing Race'' franchise. Following the premise of other versions of the format, the show follows teams of two as they race around the wor ...

'' with his daughter Tarryn, and was eliminated in 8th place in Turkey on Episode 6.

References

* *Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Ross 1956 births Living people Fitzroy Football Club players Mitchell Medal winners Prahran Football Club players Camperdown Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) The Amazing Race contestants