Australian Football

A powerful, hard running and adaptable footballer, Doug Oliphant was a shining light for Perth during a generally bleak era for the club. Between 1927 and 1940 and in 1945 he played a total of 224 senior games and in the process earned virtually every honour the game had to offer, bar a premiership. Equally effective either in the ruck or in a key forward position, Oliphant captained the Redlegs in 1940, and was a dual winner of the club’s fairest and best award, as well as finishing second to Claremont’s George Moloney in the 1936 Sandover Medal count.

Oliphant topped Perth’s goal kicking list on three occasions, and the league’s, with 84 goals, in 1931. Oliphant represented Western Australia half a dozen times, kicking six goals. While stationed in Melbourne on military service in 1942 he played seven VFL games and kicked 11 goals for Fitzroy. He was selected as a follower in Perth’s official ‘Team of the Century’.

Author - John Devaney