Australian Football

A ruckman of the very highest order, Andrew Purser name might well have been included among the bona fide all time greats of the game had he not elected to retire, aged just 28, when approaching the very finest form of his career. Purser began with East Fremantle in 1978, and his 85 games with the club included the 1979 winning Grand Final against South Fremantle, and yielded a fairest and best award in 1981. 

From 1983 to 1987 he played 112 VFL games for Footscray, where he impressed as a hard-working, mobile and often dominant ruckman who always gave 100%. On his return to Western Australia he added two league games for West Perth to bring his final tally of WAFL appearances to - unlucky for some - 87. Earlier, Andrew Purser had represented Western Australia on three occasions at a time when the sandgropers possessed the finest interstate combination in the land.

Author - John Devaney