Bert Rankin
Australian rules footballer
Albert Vivian Rankin (17 February 1893 – 20 June 1971) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong in the Victorian Football League (VFL). His brothers Cliff and Doug as well as his father Teddy and other members of the family played league football for Geelong.
Rankin started his career as a forward, but played most of his football as a centreman. A player with exceptional pace, he was also a regular user of the drop kick. In 1917 he won Geelong's best and fairest award. He captained Victoria at interstate football in 1922 and then Geelong in 1923. His brother Cliff was vice captain. This was the first time in VFL history that a pair of brothers filled both positions at the same time. It turned out to be Bert Rankin's last season in the league as, controversially, he lost his spot in the side during the finals and walked out on the club. His brother, Cliff, refused to take the field in support of his brother.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian rules footballer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4895278. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1971, 1917 and 1922.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bert Rankin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.