Simon Beasley
Simon Beasley is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Swan Districts in the WAFL and Footscray in the Victorian Football League, now known as the Australian Football League.
Recruited from Swan Districts in the WAFL, Beasley moved to Melbourne in 1982 to pursue his career as a stockbroker, and signed with Footscray in the VFL. He made his debut in the Round 1 of the 1982 VFL season against a rampant Essendon side at Windy Hill, the Bulldogs losing heavily by 109 points. However, Beasley did not take long to establish himself as a prominent full-forward, kicking 12 goals against Geelong in Round 16 and ending his debut season with a very respectable 82 goals in an under-performing side.
In 1985, the Bulldogs rose up the ladder, finishing in second place at the end of the home-and-away season before losing to Hawthorn in the Preliminary Final. Beasley played a key role, taking out the Coleman Medal with 93 goals during the home-and-away season, his personal best. He reached the century mark with a seven-goal performance in the First Semi-Final against North Melbourne and ended the season with 105 goals, becoming only the second Bulldog after Kelvin Templeton to kick 100 goals in a season. The following year his career was affected by a dispute with former club Swan Districts, who demanded $50,000 from the Bulldogs to keep Beasley in Victoria as the WAFL Swans believed his lease had expired – though nothing was actually given.
In 1988, Beasley kicked 82 goals to overtake Templeton as the Bulldogs’ most prolific goalscorer. However, after a major back injury in the pre-season Beasley played in the reserves for the first three rounds of 1989. He did return in the fourth round and kicked six goals the following week against Melbourne, but the following four rounds saw only six further goals and his knee and back injuries forced Beasley into retirement in June.
In 2006 Beasley was appointed to host the Western Region Football League's show on Channel 31, renamed The Simon Beasley Show.
Beasley obtained his bookmaker license in 2002. In 2009, he was charged with and pleaded guilty to breaching betting regulations between April 2006 and October 2008. Specifically, he had taken 1,598 bets totalling $3.8 million in turnover without lodging them with racing authorities. Beaseley was fined AUD$50,000 and disqualified from bookmaking for four years.
Playing statistics
| Led the league for the season only | |
| Led the league after finals only | |
| Led the league after season and finals |
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1982
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1983
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1984
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1985
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1986
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1987
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1988
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1989
! colspan=3| Career
! 154
! 575
! 321
! 1100
! 199
! 1299
! 813
! 8
! 3.7
! 2.1
! 7.1
! 1.3
! 8.4
! 5.3
! 0.2