Francis Bourke

Who is Francis Bourke?

Francis William Bourke is a former Australian rules footballer and coach who represented Richmond in the Victorian Football League between 1967 and 1981, and coached the club in 1982 and 1983.

A key figure in a successful period at Richmond, Bourke is a five-time premiership player who was honoured with selection in the AFL's Team of the Century. His is the only family to have provided three generations of players for the Richmond senior team: Bourke's father, Frank, played 16 matches in the 1940s and his son, David played 85 games between 1995 and 2001. In 2009 The Australian newspaper nominated Bourke as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win a Brownlow Medal.