Frank Hopkins

Francis Staney Hopkins (8 February 1909 – 4 January 1960) was an Australian rules footballer who played for West Perth and Claremont in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) between 1926 and 1941. He was the leading goalkicker in the league for the 1930 season, and won a premiership with each club he represented. Hopkins played eleven state games for Western Australia, and in 2013 was inducted in to the West Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Biography Hopkins was born in Beverley, Western Australia, but was raised on the Eastern Goldfields. He first came to notice as a football player in 1925, when as a 16-year-old he played a full season for Boulder City in the Goldfields Football League (GFL).

West Perth Based on his reputation on the goldfields, Hopkins earned a transfer to West Perth for the metropolitan league's 1926 season. He played every game in his debut season and finished with 21 goals as a centre half-forward, with his athleticism and brilliant marking allowing him to compete with much older and bigger players. In Hopkins' second season, he won inclusion in the WA state team for a tour of the eastern states. He kicked three goals against Victoria on his state debut, in front of 31,000 people at the MCG, and then in the next match against a CANFL team kicked five goals from a half-forward flank. Finally, playing centre-half-forward against South Australia, he kicked three more goals in a narrow 11-point loss, finishing with 11 goals from his first three games as a state player.

As a 20-year-old, Hopkins kicked 63 goals from 18 games in the 1929 season to finish as West Perth's leading goalkicker. This included eight goals against a struggling Claremont-Cottesloe team in round twelve. That was his last full season in senior football, but in 1941 he was recalled as 19th man for one final game, against his old club West Perth late in the year as the result of an injury crisis / dearth of players due to the war. He kicked a goal shortly after coming on to the ground.