Feltham brothers

Terry Feltham, Paul Feltham, Peter Feltham, Michael Feltham, Bill Feltham (from oldest to youngest) were brothers who all played VFL/AFL football.
There have been a number of sporting brothers that have played VFL/AFL football in and around the 1970s. The Ablett brothers, the Feltham brothers, the Daniher's, the Daltons, the Graces and many more. This article deals with the Felthams to start with and will endeavour to look at all the brothers that played VFL/AFL over the next 12 months.
Paul Feltham, Bill Feltham, Michael Feltham, Peter Feltham and Terry Feltham make up the family. Terry was the only one that did not go on with VFL and took up rugby. It is widely not known that during the 70's Paul, Bill and Peter played together at Mordialloc FC, West Canberra FC and for the ACT in the successful years when the ACT was the only interstate team to beat Victoria. Bill, Paul and Peter were (at that time) the only 3 brothers to play in the same team at the same time for the same state (ACT), I believe this has not been done since.
Paul Feltham was the most successful of the brothers, followed closely by Peter and Bill. Paul played a number of games for North Melbourne/Richmond/Mordialloc/West Canberra/Perth/ACT, Peter played for North Melbourne/Mordialloc/West Canberra/ACT and Bill Played for Hawthorn/Mordialloc/West Canberra/ACT. At the time the brothers were in Canberra a number of highly successful footballers were playing in this league (Cowboy Neal, John Burns and many more) so the competition was a very high standard. The rumour is that Hawthorn cleared Paul to play with North, then cleared Peter and when Bill approached them for a clearance at 18 the answer was a resounding NO. At that time there was no draft so it must have been a zoning issue. Subsequently Bill played only a minor role at Hawthorn while Peter and Paul both pursued longer careers in the VFL. When Paul retired from the VFL he enlisted the other brothers Bill (already at Mordialloc), Peter and Michael to come down to Mordialloc to play, this was the start of a highly successful collaboration between the brothers to follow each other around Australia and play professionally.
At West Canberra (where Paul was captain coach) the brothers were all an integral part of a successful campaign taking West Canberra to the finals. During this time at West Canberra all brothers won selection in the State side to play against Victoria (win) Tasmania (Win) and in the Escort championship. At the Escort Championship against Footscray the 3 brothers played and this has not been achieved again. It was reported during game that Lou Richards made the comment that "Bill passed the ball to Peter, who passed the ball to Paul and then back to Bill, that's tight folks there are 3 of them out there".
All brothers are very similar in size and playing styles, all were small, extremely skillful on both sides of the body, physical players that did not give any quarter and asked for none. All were exceptional marks for their heights and all liked jumping on opposition players or their own players to get to the ball. All the brothers are excellent sportsmen with skills in Golf, Cricket, Basketball and Tennis. Paul has a handicap of 1, Peter 10, Bill 12 and Michael 12. Bill has been successful in coaching VFL (QAFL), State Basketball, Peter is a successful Basketball coach. Michael (the 4th oldest) was a smaller player and at one time all 4 brothers played for West Canberra in the ACTFL. Paul went on to coach the Brisbane Bears (the bad news Bears at theat time) when Peter Knights was sacked, Bill and Peter enjoyed minor roles in the coaching. All the brothers are successful business owners.

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