Australian Football

AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game

 

Key Facts

Full name
Garry Leonard Bygraves

Known as
Garry Bygraves

Nickname
Cowboy

Born
30 March 1950 (age 73)

Senior clubs
East Perth

Garry Bygraves


ClubLeagueCareer spanGamesGoalsAvgWin %AKIAHBAMKBV
East PerthWANFL1968-19761663792.28
Total1968-19761663792.28

At a time when Western Australian football was bursting at the seams with top quality rovers, East Perth’s Garry Bygraves was among the best. Between 1968 and 1976 he played a total of 166 WANFL games and booted 379 goals for the Royals, as well as representing Western Australia against South Australia at Subiaco in 1973. Nicknamed ‘Cowboy’, he was an energetically eye catching footballer who was especially hard to contain when resting in a forward pocket. He topped East Perth’s goal kicking list in 1970 with 56 goals, and in 1976 with 65.

After producing a fine performance in a losing team against West Perth in the 1969 grand final he again came up with the goods three years later when the Royals beat Claremont in the year's decisive match to secure their first senior grade flag since 1959. East Perth beat the Tigers 9.17 (71) to 8.8 (56), with Bygraves, who booted four goals, his team’s only multiple goalkicker. Three of his goals came during the third term, when the Royals were kicking into the wind, and these ultimately proved decisive in determining the eventual result of the match. Garry Bygraves’ last game in a Royals jumper came in the 1976 Grand Final against Perth, but it proved to be a sour ending to a fine career as the Demons won comfortably.

Author - John Devaney

Sources

Full Points Footy's WA Football Companion

Footnotes

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