John Cahill (footballer)
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John Cahill (born 27 April 1940) is a former
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. During his illustrious career he played football for
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 ...
, and coached
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 ...
, West Adelaide,
South Adelaide The South Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club that competes in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Known as the ''Panthers'', their home ground is Flinders University StadiumSouth Australian National Football League 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 ...
(SANFL) and in the
Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFL) and in the
Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(AFL). The Port Adelaide Football Club honoured Cahill by naming the award for the club's
best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...
player the
John Cahill Medal The John Cahill Medal, named after the Port Adelaide Football Club's ten time premiership coach and inaugural AFL coach John Cahill, is awarded to the club player adjudged best and fairest for the season. The voting system as of the 2017 AFL ...
.


SANFL career


Port Adelaide career

Cahill played 264 matches for Port Adelaide and 29 state matches for South Australia from 1958 to 1973. He captained Port Adelaide from 1967 to 1973 and skippered South Australia in 1969 and 1970.


Coaching career


Port Adelaide Football club senior coach (SANFL) (1974–1982)

After retiring, Cahill took up senior coaching. Starting with Port Adelaide, he would lead the club to three premierships in the SANFL in 1977, 1979 and 1981.


Collingwood Football Club senior coach (VFL) (1983–1984)

Collingwood embarked on a nation-wide search for a senior coach at the end of the 1982 season to replace
Tom Hafey Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...
who was sacked in the middle of the 1982 season and replaced by caretaker senior coach Mick Erwin for the rest of the 1982 season, who Collingwood did not retain for the 1983 season. Collingwood were seeking to choose the best possible candidate in Australia as it desperately sought an end to an embarrassing premiership drought. The New Collingwood Magpies board, who had taken over the club after the 1982 election, finally settled on Cahill, a legendary South Australian player and coach, who hadn't even applied for the job after it was advertised across Australia. Instead, Cahill was asked to apply for the position, and he finally agreed to take the position on, mindful that the new board was about to embark on an almost unprecedented recruiting campaign. In being appointed the new Collingwood Football Club senior coach, Cahill would have access to an array of new and recycled talent that would be coming to the club, including
David Cloke David Cloke (born 28 January 1955) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A tough and skilled footballer with an imposing ...
and
Geoff Raines Geoff Raines (born 10 August 1956) is a former Australian rules football player who played in the VFL between 1976 and 1982 for the Richmond Football Club, between 1983 and 1985 for the Collingwood Football Club, in 1986 for the Essendon F ...
from the
Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...
, Shane Morwood from the
Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
football club, as well as three potential stars from interstate,
Greg Phillips Greg Phillips (born 26 March 1959) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football L ...
, Mike Richardson and Gary Shaw. Cahill then spent two seasons as senior coach of the
Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...
in the VFL from 1983 to 1984, where he led them to 6th in 1983 and 3rd in 1984. In the 1984 season, Cahill guided Collingwood to the preliminary finals, where they were eliminated by the eventual premiers
Essendon Bombers The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...
by 133 points. It was a frustrating end to the season and to Cahill's coaching time at Collingwood. With his two seasons done, Cahill sent a letter of resignation to the club. Cahill was replaced by Bob Rose as Collingwood Football Club senior coach for the 1985 season, who returned to the club in his second stint as coach. Cahill coached Collingwood Football Club to a total of 47 games with 27 wins 20 losses with a winning percentage of 57 percent.


West Adelaide Football Club senior coach (SANFL) (1985–1987)

Cahill then returned to
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
where he coached West Adelaide in the SANFL from 1985 to 1987 taking the club to 3rd in his first season and the league Night Premierships in 1985 and 1987.


Port Adelaide Football club senior coach (SANFL) (1988–1996)

But it was Port Adelaide where his heart lay and he returned to Alberton in 1988 and led the club to six more premierships in 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1995 before ending his SANFL coaching after 14 rounds of the 1996 season.


Port Adelaide Football club senior coach (AFL) (1997–1998)

Cahill then went to move on to become the inaugural
Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed ...
senior coach in 1997, when they were admitted into the AFL. Cahill then set about forming a group which would form the inaugural squad.
Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...
list and 1990 Port Adelaide premiership player,
Gavin Wanganeen Gavin Adrian Wanganeen (born 18 June 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and also for the Port Adelaide Magpies in ...
, was signed from
Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...
and made captain of a team made up of six existing Port Adelaide players, two from the Adelaide Crows, seven players from other SANFL clubs and 14 recruits from interstate. In Cahill's first season as Port Adelaide senior coach in its inaugural season in the AFL in the 1997 season, Cahill guided Port to finish ninth on the ladder, just missing out of the finals with ten wins, one draw and eleven losses. In the 1998 season, Cahill guided Port to finish tenth on the ladder with nine wins, one draw and 12 losses. After two unsuccessful seasons in the AFL, Cahill left the club at the end of the 1998 season. Cahill was then replaced by his assistant coach Mark Williams as Port Adelaide Football Club senior coach in the AFL. Cahill coached Port Adelaide Football club in the AFL to a total of 44 games with 19 wins, 23 losses and 2 draws with a winning percentage of 45 percent.


Port Adelaide Football club senior coach (SANFL) (2005)

However, in 2005, he was appointed senior coach of the
Port Adelaide Magpies Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed the Power, whilst its reserves ...
for one season to revitalise the struggling club. He took them to their first finals series in three seasons and they finished a respectable third. At the end of the season, he announced that he was retiring from coaching.


South Adelaide Football club senior coach (SANFL) (2008)

However, in 2008, he signed a two-year coaching deal with the South Adelaide Football Club as senior coach in an attempt to pull them out of their current slump. He resigned eight matches into the season, apparently citing "outside influences".


Personal life

His son is
Darren Cahill Darren Cahill (born 2 October 1965) is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from Australia. In addition, Cahill is a tennis analyst for the Grand Slam events on the US sports network ESPN and a coach with the Adidas Player Devel ...
(born 1965), a former professional tennis player from Australia and tennis coach. His brother is Darrell Cahill who also played for Port Adelaide, playing 265 games. His daughter Julie married
Scott Hodges Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saskat ...
who played for Port Adelaide, Adelaide and Port Adelaide in the AFL. They have since divorced. His granddaughter Charlee Hodges played netball for the
Adelaide Thunderbirds Adelaide Thunderbirds are an Australian netball team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Since 2017 they have played in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship and between 1997 and 2007, they played in ...
. His uncle, Laurie Cahill was also a coach in the SANFL, coaching South Adelaide in 1947-8 and 1957 and West Adelaide from 1953 until 1956, taking the latter club to two Grand Finals in 1954 and 1956. Prior to that he was a dual premiership player with South Adelaide in the SANFL and a member of VFL side Richmond's 1943 grand final winning team. He is first cousin to Barrie Barbary. In 2010, he purchased a
EFM Health Clubs
Franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...
http://www.franchisebusiness.com.au/c/EFM-Health-Clubs/SANFL-AFL-coaching-great-joins-the-EFM-Health-Clubs-fitness-franchise-team-n886975 located on-site at
Pulteney Grammar School Pulteney Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, co-educational, private day school. Founded in 1847 by members of the Anglican Church, it is the second oldest independent school in South Australia. Its campuses are located on South Terrace ...
in the
Adelaide CBD Adelaide city centre (Kaurna language, Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Adelaide, Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaid ...
.


External links


Official Website of the Port Adelaide Magpies Football ClubOfficial Website of the Port Adelaide Football ClubThe Power From Port – Unofficial Port Adelaide Power and Magpies Football Clubs Website


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cahill, John 1940 births Collingwood Football Club coaches Australian people of Irish descent Living people Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) players Port Adelaide Football Club coaches Port Adelaide Magpies coaches Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) coaches Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) South Adelaide Football Club coaches West Adelaide Football Club coaches Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees All-Australians (1953–1988) Australian rules footballers from Adelaide South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees