Ross Ditchburn

Who is Ross Ditchburn?

Ross Ditchburn is a former Australian rules footballer in the Western Australian National Football League and the Victorian Football League.

From a prominent farming family in the small Western Australian wheatbelt community of Kukerin, Ditchburn moved to Perth in the mid-1970s, where he played WANFL football for Claremont. Between 1975 and 1980, Ditchburn played a total of 110 senior games for Claremont as a forward. He left the league at the end of 1980, and returned to work at the family farm in Kukerin. During the 1981 season, he served as captain-coach of the Kukerin Football Club in the Central Great Southern Football League.

Ditchburn had been signed by the VFL's Carlton Football Club during the 1970s, tying him to the club if he ever chose to move to Victoria. At age 25 he decided he needed to make the attempt at VFL football in 1982 before he became too old to have a reasonable chance at it. He initially struggled; by Round 14, he had played only one senior game for one goal, and was considered too slow to play his preferred position of centre half forward in the VFL.