As we celebrate Heritage Week, Peter Blucher writes this profile piece on South Melbourne legend Vic Belcher.

Vic Belcher grew up in suburban Brunswick in Melbourne. As legend has it, as a teenager he befriended the local baker who was a staunch South Melbourne fan. So he, too, followed the ‘Southerners’ because his baker friend would let him hitch a ride on the back of his horse-drawn wagon.

It is a story that is as much a part of South Melbourne history as the decorated career that followed for the future AFL Hall of Famer and all-time club favorite.

Belcher was a South Melbourne trailblazer, and is remembered this week as the Sydney Swans celebrate AFL Heritage Round against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Born in Lebrina near Launceston in Tasmania before the family moved to Melbourne in his early years and one of seven brothers, he was a promising footballer. He played with the local All-Stars junior club and nearby Coburg juniors before joining older brother Allan at Brunswick in the then VFA competition in 1905. At 17 in 1906 he represented the VFA, a competition secondary to the VFL, and became hot property.

When it came time to choose a club in the then VFL he could have gone to Collingwood, where older brother Allan had started his career. It was about 6km away. He could have gone to Essendon, where Allan was playing at the time. It was about 8km away. And he could have taken the closest option 4km away at Carlton.

But Belcher remembered his old mate the baker and his promise to support the Southerners. He joined South Melbourne. It was 15km away and he would ride his bike across town to Lake Oval to train and play.

Quite possibly he was the first player to do so, but thereafter he very definitely enjoyed a string of “firsts” for the club in a pivotal role in the club’s early history.

Belcher was a member of South Melbourne’s first winning finals side in 1907, when they beat Collingwood by 34 points. At 19 in just his 18th game he was the youngest member of a side captained by Bill Dolphin.

In 1908 he was a member of the first South Melbourne side to play competition newcomers University and Richmond, and the first South side to play at Richmond’s Punt Road headquarters.

He was a member of South Melbourne’s first premiership side in 1909, when they beat Carlton by two points in the grand final under captain-coach Charlie Ricketts to end the Blues’ three-year premiership reign. It was his 58th game.

He was a member of the South Melbourne side in Round 1 1912 which wear jumper numbers for the first time. Ricketts, back at the helm, wore #1 and thereafter they were allocated alphabetically. Belcher wore #2.

Later in the same season he was acting captain in a semi-final against Essendon, skippered by older brother Allan. Not only were they the first brothers to be opposing captains in a VFL match but they were the first brothers to play on each other. And when he played in the grand final the following week he was the first South Melbourne player to figure in three premiership deciders.

In 1914 as captain-coach he took South to the grand final against Carlton. They were beaten by Carlton by six points but still he was the club’s first four-time grand final

In 1915, in his second season as captain-coach, he was the first person to captain South Melbourne 50 times. He had curiously been appointed captain in 1913 when first-year coach Harvey Kelly was also a player. Later, after South Melbourne did not participate in what was a four-team competition during World War 1 in 1916, he was captain-coach again in 1918 and captain again in 1920 when Arthur Hiskins, a teammate of Belcher’s from 1908, was playing coach.

In 1918 as vice-captain Belcher enjoyed a double ‘first’ – he was the first South Melbourne player to reach 200 games for the club in the grand final against Collingwood and became the club’s first dual premiership player when a soccer goal from Chris Laird got them home after they had trailed at each change. Having played a pivotal role in a comeback after being switched from defence to the ruck. He was the only 200-gamer until Mark Tandy posted his double ton in 1925 and the only dual premiership player until Jude Bolton, Adam Goodes, Ryan O’Keefe and Lewis Roberts-Thomson won a second flag in 2012.

In Round 12 1919, in his 210th game at 30, he played in a 171-point win over St.Kilda at Lake Oval in which Harold Robertson kicked 14 goals – seven in a 17-4 to 0-0 last quarter. It was the club’s first 100-point win. The final score was 29-15 (189) to 2-6 (8) and although the total has since been surpassed the margin remains the club’s biggest more than 100 years on.

After he retired at the end of the 1920 season noted journalist John Worrall, a Test cricketer, champion footballer and recognised as the VFL’s first coach, wrote glowingly of Belcher:-

“When he began playing senior football, Belcher was a ruckman, being as fine a performer in that position as any man playing. In his latter years he has been a noted defender, his coolness, judgement, fine marking qualities and dash making him an ideal back man and captain. Like the vast majority of champions Belcher has been fairness personified. He possesses fine spring and determination, was a hard man to beat and was a manly opponent.

Indeed he was. But he wasn’t finished making South Melbourne history.

In 1996, when the AFL launched the Hall of Fame, he was among  the first seven South Melbourne/Sydney inductees, with inaugural legend Bob Skilton, VFA superstar Peter Burns, ex-teammate Tandy, Ron Clegg, Laurie Nash and John Rantall. Sadly, Belcher had died on 3 January 1977 aged 88.

And in 2003, when the Swans named the club’s Team of the Century, he was one of the first players chosen. He was named in the back pocket.

At times known as 'The Human Aeroplane' in a tribute to his spectacular leap, Belcher wasn’t just a South Melbourne man. He coached Fitzroy in 1922-24 and 1926-27, taking the club to the 1922 premiership and the 1923 grand final.

An inaugural inductee to the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2014 in recognition of his roots in the Apple Isle, he returned home for a short stint as playing coach of NTFA club City in 1925 and later coached at Brunswick, East Brunswick and Old Scotch.

And he had two stints as a VFL boundary umpire, running in 16 matches including the grand final in 1921 and one in 1930 when, having been added to the umpiring panel as a field umpire, he did one more game on the boundary.

Belcher, a man so prominent in club history, was player #188 on a South Melbourne / Sydney Swans player list that now numbers 1438. But when it comes to early history and heritage he is most certainly among the contenders to be the No.1 man.