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Key Facts

Full name
Peter Box

Known as
Peter Box

Born
22 March 1932

Died
15 August 2018 (aged 86)

Age at first & last AFL game
First game: 19y 30d
Last game: 25y 127d

Height and weight
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 79 kg

Senior clubs
Footscray; Camberwell

Jumper numbers
Footscray: 5

Recruited from
Cheltenham (1951)

Peter Box

Advanced stats
Club
League
Career span
Games
Goals
Avg
Win %
AKI
AHB
AMK
BV
FootscrayV/AFL1951, 1953-1957107430.4062%15.20—3.3347
CamberwellVFA1958————————
Total1951, 1953-1958107430.40—————

Pre 1965 stats are for selected matches only

AFL: 6,056th player to appear, 2,283rd most games played, 2,325th most goals kickedFootscray: 375th player to appear, 125th most games played, 154th most goals kicked

Footscray centreman, Peter Box, was taken off the danger list at Royal Melbourne Hospital yesterday. His condition was reported as “quite satisfactory.” He was injured in a motor cycle accident on Saturday. There seems little chance of him training for at least two months. His injuries include a dislocated, shoulder, torn leg muscle and broken bone in the hand.¹

Originally from Federal League club Cheltenham, Peter Box had to overcome the horrendous setback of being involved in a serious road accident early in his VFL career before developing into one of the finest centremen of his era. In 1954, his third league season, he helped Footscray to defeat Melbourne in the Grand Final to secure its first ever VFL flag.

Two years later Box became the club's second Brownlow Medallist (or the third if you include Alan Hopkins' retrospective 1930 Medal), making him the only Bulldogs player to date to procure the 'double' of Brownlow and premiership win. Perhaps a touch surprisingly, Box did not win Footscray's club champion award in his Medal-winning year - that honour went to Don Ross - but he had managed to lift the award a year earlier. All told, Box played 107 VFL games for Footscray in seven seasons.

In 1958, aged 26, Box transferred to Camberwell where, in what proved to be his final season, he continued to display fine form, winning the club's best and fairest award, and representing the VFA at the Melbourne centenary carnival.

Author - John Devaney

Footnotes

1. “The Age”, 4/3/52, page 18.

Sources

Full Points Footy Publications, Crème de la Crème

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Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.