Brad Bootsma
Bradley Bootsma is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League. He played as a half-back flanker or midfielder. Bootsma was recruited from South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League and is the father of former AFL footballer Josh Bootsma.
AFL career
The Dockers surprised many when they selected Bootsma with their only pick in the 2000 pre season draft. Bootsma was recruited at the late age of 27.After spending the first seven rounds of the 2000 season playing in the WAFL with South Fremantle, Bootsma was selected to make his debut in Round 8 against Collingwood at the Docklands Stadium in a rare Monday night game. A more than serviceable game saw Bootsma end up playing played 13 games in his debut season.
Bootsma played the first 10 games of 2001 and had more than 20 possessions in 5 of them. However, the tumultuous round 10 match against Richmond, Ben Allan's first as caretaker coach after Damian Drum was sacked, would be Bootsma's last, due initially to a knee injury and later he was unable to break into the team eager to rebuild for the future. He would remain on the Fremantle list for the 2002 season, but did not play another senior game. He retired from AFL football at the end of 2002.