Australian Football

After emigrating to South Australia from Germany as a youngster, Frank Stemper gave solid service to two clubs during a 12-season, 214-game league career. Commencing with Woodville in 1970, Stemper won two club fairest and best awards before apparently retiring at the end of a 1978 season in which he had captained the club to its best performance up to that point. Stemper had been warned by doctors that he risked cracking his kneecap if he continued to play football but in 1980 he surprised everyone by returning to the fray with a new club, Norwood.

Over the next three seasons Frank Stemper played some of the best football of his career. In 1980 he was one of the Redlegs’ best players in their narrow Grand Final loss to Port Adelaide, while two seasons later he was again prominent as Norwood won the flag with a 62-point demolition of Glenelg. Having presumably now achieved his main football ambition, Stemper promptly retired, this time for good.

For most of his career Frank Stemper played in the backlines where his pace and anticipation made him a quintessential rebound player. During the twilight years of his career he was a regular member of South Australian interstate training squads but was only once selected in the team.

Author - John Devaney