Jack Oatey (29 August 1920 – 26 February 1994) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

player and coach.

Playing career

Oatey played 181 games for the

Norwood Football Club Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) in the state of South Australia. Its home ground is Coopers Stadium (Norwood Oval), which is ...

between 1940 and 1952 and acted as playing-coach from 1945 to 1952. While on service for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1944, he played 5 games for the South Melbourne Football Club.

Coaching career

Following his retirement from playing in 1952, Oatey remained the coach of Norwood until 1956. In 1957, Oatey moved to West Adelaide where he coached until 1960, reaching the finals each year but never winning the premiership. Not involved in coaching at any team in 1961, Oatey saw the Bloods win the SANFL premiership, convincing him to return to the league. He went to Sturt, coaching there from 1962 to 1982, and leading the league team to seven

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

Premierships (a record at the time) including the famous five in a row from 1966 to 1970. A long-standing coaching rival to

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

Fos Williams Foster Neil "Fos" Williams AM (21 February 1922 – 1 September 2001) was a leading Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the Port Adelaide and West Adelaide Football Clubs and coached South Adelaide in the South Australian ...

, Sturt defeated Port Adelaide four times in

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

s under Oatey's tutelage. Through his time at Sturt, Oatey was one of the early instigators of the greater use of

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

as an attacking option, which is often apocryphally attributed to the VFL's

Ron Barassi Ronald Dale Barassi Jr. (born 27 February 1936) is a former Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality. Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the game, Barassi was the first player to be inaugurated into ...

, particularly within Victoria. It was a major contributor to Sturt's success through the 1960s. He also encouraged the use of the checkside punt for wide-angle goalkicking, and was strong at encouraging skills development and team play. He was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 1996. Overall, Oatey coached 37 seasons in the SANFL, winning ten premierships (three with Norwood, seven with Sturt), reaching seventeen grand finals (six with Norwood, two with West Adelaide and nine with Sturt) and reaching the finals on 33 occasions. His ten premierships is still the record for the most premierships by one coach in elite Australian rules football.

Accolades

Jack Oatey is the only person in elite Australian rules football history to coach over 500 wins. He coached Norwood, West Adelaide and Sturt to a total of 521 wins and five draws from a record 786 matches (153 of these were as playing coach for Norwood) for an overall success rate of 66.6%. He coached a record ten premierships. Oatey was awarded Life Membership of the Norwood Football Club, was awarded Life Membership of the Sturt Football Club in 1971 and SANFL Life Membership in 1981. In 1981 the SANFL inaugurated the

Jack Oatey Medal The Jack Oatey Medal is awarded to the best player during the SANFL Grand Final. It has been awarded since 1981. In 2018, Mitch Grigg of Norwood became the first player to win the Jack Oatey Medal on a losing team, after his team were defeated b ...

to be awarded to the best player in the SANFL grand final, the first time an SANFL award was named for a still active coach. In the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours, Oatey was appointed

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AM) for services to the sport of Australian football. Jack Oatey was an inaugural inductee into the

in 1996 and was elevated to Legend status in 2021, becoming only the second Legend to have played and coached his entire career in the SANFL. In 2002, he was one of 113 inaugural inductees into the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

. A stand was named after him at the Adelaide Oval in 2014.

Sampson Hosking Sampson Hosking (4 January 1888 – 20 October 1974) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League, South Australian Football League (SAFL). He was twice a re ...

said of Jack Oatey in 1950 that "I have great respect for him as a coach. He's the best defensive captain I've ever seen".

Family

Oatey's eldest son

Robert Oatey Robert Reginald Oatey Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM (16 August 1942 – 17 September 2019) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Norwood Football Club, Norwood and Sturt Football Club, Sturt in the South Australian National F ...

also played for and coached Norwood and later became a highly respected television commentator for Channel 7 and Channel 10's SANFL coverage in the 1980s, teaming with

Bruce McAvaney Bruce William McAvaney OAM (born 22 June 1953) is an Australian sports broadcaster with the Seven Network. McAvaney has presented high-profile events including the AFL Grand Final, Melbourne Cup, Australian Open, Test cricket and both Winter a ...

Ian Day Ian Douglas Day (born 9 February 1935) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for West Adelaide Football Club, West Adelaide between 1952 and 1960, and South Adelaide Football Club, South Adelaide between 1961 and 1964. He captain ...

Peter Marker Peter Marker (born 21 March 1949) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with and captained Glenelg Football Club, Glenelg in the South Australian National Football League, SANFL during the late 1960s and 1970s, captaining the Tiger ...

and

Graham Campbell Graham Fraser Campbell (22 July 1936 – 30 January 2022) was an Australian rules footballer who played 151 games for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League from 1956 until 1964. Playing career In his playing days Campbe ...

. Jack's youngest son

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, was both a Norwood footballer and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player.

References

External links

*
SA Football Hall of Fame - Jack Oatey AMNorwood Football Club Hall of Fame - Jack Oatey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oatey, Jack Norwood Football Club coaches Norwood Football Club players Sturt Football Club coaches West Adelaide Football Club coaches Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Sydney Swans players Australian military personnel of World War II Australian rules footballers from South Australia Members of the Order of Australia South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 1920 births 1994 deaths Military personnel from South Australia