The family then moved to Victoria and in 1893 the birth of another brother Ernest Staley was registered in the Brunswick area of Melbourne.

[3] Immediately successful as a defender, Belcher was selected in the back-pocket to represent the VFA in 1906 when they played the Bendigo and Northern District Association.

[6] Despite residing in Brunswick, Belcher chose South because he supported them as a youth and cycled to the Lake Oval to train and play.

[10] Belcher was appointed South Melbourne captain-coach from 1914 to 1915 and 1917, losing the 1914 grand final and finishing fifth and seventh in the other seasons.

As vice-captain in 1918 Belcher won his second premiership with South and enhanced his reputation as a good finals player.

In his latter years he has been a noted defender, his coolness, judgement, fine marking qualities and dash making him an ideal back man and captain.

Belcher is one of only five dual South Melbourne/Sydney Swans premiership players, the other four being Jude Bolton, Adam Goodes, Ryan O'Keefe and Lewis Roberts-Thomson.

Having received a playing clearance from South Melbourne, he was recruited by City Football Club in the Launceston-based NTFA competition for the 1925 season.

[17] Belcher returned to Melbourne as non-playing coach of Fitzroy from 1926 to 1927; then, he moved to a junior team, East Brunswick, as playing-coach in 1928.

He was accepted and made his debut as a boundary umpire in round two's Melbourne versus Collingwood match earning Heritage Number 134.