Australian Football

AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game

 

Key Facts

Full name
Adolphos Heinrich Julius Carl Heinrichs

Known as
Dolph Heinrichs

Born
28 April 1883

Place of birth
Germany

Died
24 June 1967 (aged 84)

Place of death
Adelaide, SA (5000)

Senior clubs
East Fremantle; North Fremantle

Recruited from
East Fremantle (1901); North Fremantle (1905)

State of origin
Germany

Family links
Albert Heinrichs (Brother)

Dolph Heinrichs


ClubLeagueCareer spanGamesGoalsAvgWin %AKIAHBAMKBV
East FremantleWAFA1899-1900, 1905-190660641.07
Kalgoorlie RailwaysGFA1901
North FremantleWAFA1902-190444
Mines RoversGFL1910
WAFA1899-1900, 1902-1906104640.62
GFL1901, 1910
Total1899-1906, 1910104640.62

Born in Germany in 1883, Adolphos 'Dolph' Heinrichs migrated with his family to Australia shortly afterwards. After initially settling in Victoria the family moved to Western Australia where young Dolph first played football. In 1899 he joined East Fremantle and soon developed into a key player, helping the side to a premiership in 1900.

After two seasons with Old Easts he spent a year playing for Kalgoorlie club Railways before resuming in the coastal competition in 1902, this time with North Fremantle, which was making its WAFA debut. At this stage in his career he was playing mainly as a follower or defender but in 1904, when on an eastern states tour with the first ever Western Australian state team he was tried at full forward in the match against South Australia and registered five of his victorious team’s 10 goals. As a result, for much of the rest of his career he was used as a key forward.

The 1905 season saw Heinrichs back at East Fremantle where he played for three years, taking his final tally of games played for the club to 60 and the number of goals kicked to 64. He enjoyed premiership success a second time in 1906. The North Fremantle phase of his career had seen him play 44 games.

At the end of the 1907 season he ostensibly retired and took up umpiring. However, in 1910 he made a single season comeback with goldfields club Mines Rovers.

His importance to East Fremantle was later augmented when he produced a seminal chronological account of the club’s first fifty seasons.

Author - John Devaney

Sources

Wikipedia article; Celebrating 100 Years of Tradition by Jack Lee

Footnotes

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