John Herbert Todd (born 21 May 1938) 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 ...

er who played for the South Fremantle Football Club in the

West Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(WANFL). Todd won the

Sandover Medal The Sandover Medal is an Australian rules football award, given annually since 1921 to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League. The award was donated by Alfred Sandover M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant and b ...

in his debut season at just 17 years of age, but his playing career was cut short by a serious knee injury in his second season. While still a player, Todd embarked on a coaching career that spanned over 700 games and lasted over four decades. He became only the second coach to guide three WAFL clubs (, South Fremantle and ) to premierships, and led to its first finals appearance in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

. Todd is an inaugural Legend of the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise and enshrine those who have made a significant contribution to Australian rules football in Western Australia. People eligible for inclusion are players, coaches, umpires, ...

and was inducted into the Coaches section of 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 2003.

Playing career

Todd first came to notice when he scored 7 goals in South Fremantle's reserve grade WAFL premiership. He made his senior debut the following year aged 16 years and 336 days, one of the youngest and played in every league game, winning both the

and South'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 ...

award. Aged 17 and four months when he beat

Graham Farmer Graham Vivian "Polly" Farmer (10 March 1935 14 August 2019) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the East Perth Football Club and West Perth Football Club in th ...

by four votes in the 1955 Sandover Medal count, Todd was the youngest-ever winner in open-age competition ( Laurie Bowen was younger when he won the award in 1942, one of the seasons which were restricted to under age during

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 ...

). Five games into Todd's second season, shortly after he turned 18, a pack of players collapsed on his left leg during a match. Todd suffered a torn

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

that was unable to be repaired with the medical techniques of the time.East (2006) p196 Wearing a special leg brace he was able to continue playing but only had two more seasons in his career that were not affected by injury. He won the South Fremantle

award in each of these years, 1958 and 1961 and also was selected in the

All-Australian Team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

following Western Australia's successful 1961 Brisbane Carnival performance. Todd played a total of thirteen state games for Western Australia between 1955 and 1962, kicking 25 goals. He was appointed the playing captain-coach of South Fremantle in 1959 but relinquished the position in 1960. He retired from playing in 1964 and was reappointed coach in 1966. He made a comeback to the playing field in June 1966 in the Foundation Day Derby but retired again soon after, finishing with 132 games.

Coaching career

As a coach, Todd's style was generally regarded as that of the "old school" drill sergeant. While he learned to adjust his approach over time, he never compromised when it came to discipline. He was not afraid to drop or sack players, regardless of their stature, if he felt they did not meet his standards, and pushed his players to their limits on the training track to test their resolve.

South Fremantle Football Club Coach (WANFL) (1959) (1966-1968)

Todd first coached his old club South Fremantle as a captain-coach in 1959, then after his retirement as a player, Todd returned to coach from 1966 to 1968, after which he wrote for ''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

'' during the 1970 season.

East Fremantle Football Club Coach (WANFL) (1973-1976)

He then crossed to rivals in 1973, and won his first WANFL premiership as coach in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

. Todd the left East Fremantle Football Club at the end of

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

Swan Districts Football Club (WANFL) (1977-1987)

Todd took up the coaching position at in 1977. Over the course of his coaching career in the WAFL, Todd guided his teams to seven Grand finals and won six of them. Ironically, he considered the Swan District team of 1980, which lost that season's

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 ...

to his old side South Fremantle, as the best team he had coached. While at Swans in 1982, Todd caused controversy by sending a team of reserves and colts to Melbourne to compete in the Escort Cup quarter-final against VFL club . Todd's actions were in protest to a change of the quarter final schedule, which he felt would be detrimental to his senior team's performance in the WAFL. The inexperienced team lost by 186 points, and Swan Districts was banned from the Escort Cup for two years.

West Coast Eagles senior coach (VFL) (1988-1989)

In October 1987, Todd was due to fly to Adelaide to sign with SANFL club Woodville. But the management of the fledgling

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

in the VFL league managed to get hold of him first and secure his signature as senior coach for the

1988 VFL season The 1988 VFL season was the 92nd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition and administrative body in Victoria, and by reason of it featuring clubs from New South Wales, Queensl ...

after they had just sacked

Ron Alexander Ronald James Alexander (born 10 December 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the East Perth Football Club and East Fremantle Football Club in the ...

. One of Todd's first moves as senior coach of West Coast was to field almost two different teams: one to play at home in Perth and one to play interstate. While there would be a nucleus of key players for all the matches, Todd declared that he would pick his teams for interstate matches based on who could cope best with the different conditions. The idea seemed reasonable, based on the previous season's results; in their first year of VFL football, of the 11 games the Eagles had won, only two of them were away from home. Todd also perceived that the players had treated the interstate trips as holidays, and so he organized travel arrangements to be as short as possible, with players departing Perth late on Friday and then returning home after the game. Todd was the first senior coach to take West Coast into the

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

in the 1988 season, losing the Elimination Final to by two points. But the side under Todd, struggled in the 1989 season where the Eagles finished eleventh on the ladder with seven wins and fifteen losses, missing out of the finals. Todd was replaced, without his knowledge, as senior coach of the West Coast Eagles at the end of the 1989 season with

Mick Malthouse Michael Raymond Malthouse (born 17 August 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After finishing his playing career, Maltho ...

. Todd coached West Coast Eagles in the VFL for a total of 45 games with 20 wins and 25 losses to a winning percentage of 44 percent.

Swan Districts Football Club (WANFL) (1990–1994)

Todd returned to Swan Districts, taking the team to a premiership in his first year back in 1990.

South Fremantle Football Club Coach (WANFL) (1995-1998)

Todd then moved back to his original team, South Fremantle in 1995. He coached them to the 1997 premiership before leaving again after the 1998 season, taking a year off from coaching.

Swan Districts Football Club (WANFL) (2000-2002)

In 2000 he made his final move, back to Swan Districts, before finally retiring at the end of 2002. In August 2001 he became the first West Australian and the fourth Australian to coach 700 senior games. The

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative Ass ...

suspended its standing orders to pass a motion of congratulation to Todd for his contribution to Australian rules football.

Legacy and Coaching statistics

In addition to his 721 league games as coach, Todd also coached

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

for 14 games, to take his total to 735 games. He also coached six

International Rules International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed ...

tests for Australia. In all, Todd coached in seven Grand Finals, winning six of them. He felt though that the one defeat was with the best team he had coached - the 1980 Swan Districts team, which won their first 13 games during the home-and-away season but lost to South Fremantle in the

. Todd was inducted into the

in 2003 as a coach and is a legend of the

References

Bibliography

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External links

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AFL Hall of Fame - Coaches

Player statistics
at WAFL FootyFacts * {{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, John 1938 births Living people South Fremantle Football Club players West Coast Eagles coaches Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Sandover Medal winners East Fremantle Football Club coaches South Fremantle Football Club coaches Swan Districts Football Club coaches Australia international rules football team coaches All-Australians (1953–1988) All-Australian coaches Australian rules footballers from Western Australia West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Manjimup, Western Australia