After coming through West Adelaide's junior ranks Roger Luders made his league debut with West Adelaide late in the 1978 SANFL season under Fos Williams in what would be Williams's final season of coaching league football.
During the early 1980s, Luders regularly vied with other champion full forwards in the SANFL at the time such as Tim Evans (Port Adelaide), Rick Davies (Sturt), Grenville Dietrich (North Adelaide) and Neville Roberts (Norwood) for the Ken Farmer Medal, awarded annually to the SANFL's leading goal kicker.