Peter Schofield, the goalkicking machine from Mentone, who won Richmond’s 1951 Best First Year Player Award, booted 116 goals for the Reserves in just 29 games, then was traded to Melbourne mid-week, has died. He was 93.

Schofield died January 13 2026, his family announced.

At Tigerland he played 16 senior matches from 1951-53, kicking 25 goals, and won consecutive Reserve goalkicking titles.

After playing in the seniors in Round 9 1953, Richmond traded him to Melbourne where he simply lined up for their senior side the following week.

After one year at the Demons he went to Moorabbin in the VFA and kicked 312 goals, before ending up at North Melbourne where he played 50 games.

One of only a handful of players to be coached by Jack Dyer and Norm Smith, Schofield first caught the eye of the Tigers during the 1950 season after booting 100 goals from 12 games for Mentone in the Federal League.

He was invited down to Punt Road training on August 22^nd. “They wouldn’t let me go home till I signed,” he told Rhett Bartlett in a 2020 interview. “It probably wasn’t ethical I suppose. I was only 18. I got 400 pounds in a brown paper bag.”

(The Coulter Law back then meant VFL players should only to be paid 5 pounds per match).

“Jack Dyer was there, Harry Dyke the President, and Senator Pat Kennelly who I think supplied the 400 pounds. I just went home and told Mum and Dad and they thought it was pretty good.”

Shortly after, Dyer and secretary Maurie Fleming watched their new recruit play in the Federal League Grand Final. Schofield was on 139 goals going into the game, and booted 11 in the premiership win, to end on 150.

Dyer elatedly told the press that Schofield was superior to John Coleman, at that age, in judgment and kicking.

Figure 1: Richmond get their teenager! (The Age).

In his senior debut for Richmond, the Tigers were held goalless in the first half against South Melbourne, before he kicked four of their next eight goals.

“He’s an awkward customer for the opposition fullback,” the Sporting Globe wrote.
“He crouches when he leaps to mark and takes the ball on his chest. This is a point Peter picked up from advice given to full forwards by Ron Todd in the Sporting Globe Book of 1946.”

Although only playing six senior games in his debut season, Schofield finished 3^rd on the club’s goalkicking with 21 goals, and was awarded the Bill Cosgrove Memorial Trophy for Best First Year Player.  The same year, in the Reserves, he topped the goalkicking with 44.

Schofield had a testy relationship with Coach Dyer during those three years, vividly remembering his pre-match addresses were short on tactics. “Today is a day for men with blood in their veins, not water. Now go out there and kill them,” was one of Dyer’s speeches that stuck with him.

Frustratingly, Dyer only selected him in the Seniors eight times in 1952, while in the Reserves he won the goalkicking again with 64 (which included 13 against North Melbourne - still the third highest by a Tiger in the Reserves).

“What do I have to do to get a game Jack?” Schofield remembered asking him. “You need to get more experience,” Captain Blood told him.
Bemused, Schofield asked how he would get experience when he wasn’t being selected. “I’m still waiting for that answer.”

The disappointment grew in 1953 when by the middle of the season Schofield had only been picked in the side twice.

So, after the Round 9 loss to North Melbourne, he went and trained with Melbourne in his Richmond uniform.
Everything came to a head that week and Richmond officials sensationally swapped him for Demon key position player Frank Dunin. Schofield took the field in Round 10, for Melbourne.

Two weeks later he was facing off against the Tigers at the MCG and vividly remembered his former teammates Mopsy Fraser and Max Oppy trying to knock him out. They failed. The game was a draw, and Schofield had the last laugh, kicking five goals.

Born February 12 1932, Schofield grew up in Parkdale, barracked for Essendon and idolised John Coleman. His mother wanted him to become an accountant, so during his footy career he worked at the SEC in Williams Street, but later he turned to selling car seat covers.

Of his successful goalkicking routine, he revealed the trick was to “go back and line up the goal with some lady’s hat behind the goal or whatever, then I’d put my head down and just make sure I put the ball on my foot properly. These days you see a lot of people look at the goals all the time, well they’re not going to move.”

The most goals he kicked in a game was 22 for Mentone, and whilst at North Melbourne he booted 10 in a night game at the Lakeside Oval.
After his playing career he moved up to QLD when he coached Labrador to the 1970 premiership.

Prior to his death, Schofield was the last surviving player from the Round 8 1952 match held between Richmond and Collingwood at the SCG, as part of the VFL’s “National Day Round” to promote the game across the country.

Figure 2: The squad that went up to Sydney to play Collingwood. Schofield is 8th from the left.