AFL Country Game 2021: Best AFL/VFL coaches from the bush
The men in this list rank among the all-time greats of the game. See the top-10 coaches from the bush ahead of the AFL Country Game.
The country has produced some of the best players the AFL/VFL has ever seen.
But it is also responsible for producing some of its best coaches too.
The men in this list rank among the all-time greats of the game.
In some cases their coaching career mirrors the success of their on-field exploits. For others, their greater success came from the coaches box.
For this list, we have selected coaches born or bred in the bush. For that reason, coaches such as Tom Hafey — who was born in Richmond, but whose coaching career was launched from a stint in the bush at Shepparton — have been excluded.
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10. JOHN NORTHEY
Northey may not have attained the premiership success of some of the other coaches on this list, but with 315 games under his belt as a coach — on top of the 118 he played for Richmond, including two flags — he ranks in the top-20 for games coached in the AFL/VFL. Originally from Derrinallum, with whom he won a premiership as a teenager, Northey coached Redan to a flag hat-trick in 1975-77 (he would also later coach Ballarat to the 2008 flag) and Ballarat’s interleague representative side, before heading to Sydney. Between 1985-98 he coached Sydney, Melbourne, Richmond and Brisbane. His teams played finals in eight seasons, with Melbourne making the 1988 grand final.
9. JOHN LONGMIRE
Longmire’s talent as a footballer was clear from his teenage years at Corowa-Rutherglen in the Ovens and Murray league, and he played 200 games for North Melbourne. His last game was the 1999 premiership. He headed back to NSW after retirement, joining Sydney as an assistant coach in 2002. Succeeding Paul Roos as the Swans’ coach ahead of the 2011 season, the Swans played finals every season for the first eight years under Longmire. That included the premiership in 2012, and grand final losses in 2014 against Hawthorn and 2016 against the Western Bulldogs. Longmire is the Swans’ longest-serving coach, and this weekend will coach his 250th game.
8. JOHN COLEMAN
Port Fairy-born Coleman is more commonly associated with his prowess as a forward at Essendon — 537 goals from 98 games between 1949-54. But he also had a very successful tenure as coach. Taking over from another Bombers legend, Dick Reynolds, Coleman coached 133 games from 1961-67, including a premiership in his second year at the helm and another in 1965.
7. DAN MINOGUE
Minogue escaped a miner’s life in Bendigo by pursuing league football — in 1937 in the Sporting Globe, he wrote that “football rescued me”. He played with Collingwood from 1911-16 before heading to the WWI battlefields in Europe (while in London, he played in an exhibition match in aid of the British and French Red Cross). He returned to Australia in 1919 and applied for a clearance to join Richmond, which he was eventually permitted to do in 1920, but by this time he was playing coach, a position he held for six seasons. He led the Tigers to back-to-back premierships in 1920-21 — their first in the VFL. He was made coach of Hawthorn in 1926 and played one game for them before injuries forced his retirement from playing VFL football (he did have a season in Tasmania in 1928). He would go on to also coach Carlton, St Kilda and Fitzroy, finishing with 359 games as a coach. Although Carlton made the 1932 grand final, another premiership eluded Minogue.
6. PERCY BENTLEY
Originally from Castlemaine, where his dad coached the local team, Bentley had captained the Castlemaine Technical School team. After the family moved to Melbourne, he played with Burnley Methodists before being recruited to Richmond. He made his debut for the Tigers in 1925 and went on to play 263 games and kick 275 goals. Bentley captained Richmond’s 1932 premiership team, before becoming captain-coach in 1934 and leading the team to another flag that year. He coached 133 games — his last game for the Tigers (and last as a player) was the 1940 grand final loss to Melbourne. The following year he had been snapped up by Carlton, which he coached for 281 games up to 1955, including the 1945 and ’47 premierships and the 1949 grand final.
5. ALASTAIR CLARKSON
The only coach in the top-five of this list who is still leading his team. Clarkson is one of the most successful coaches of modern times and certainly one of the best from the bush.
After spending his childhood at Kaniva before heading to Ballarat for school, Clarkson was recruited to North Melbourne in the VFL where he would go on to play 134 games for the Kangaroos and Melbourne.
He was appointed coach of Hawthorn in 2005, and in 2008 took the Hawks to its first premiership since 1991 with a win against Geelong.
But the best was still to come — having shaken the so-called “Kennett curse” by beating Geelong in the 2013 preliminary final after 11 straight losses to the Cats in the years since that flag, Hawthorn won three grand finals in a row from 2013-15.
Clarkson — who also coached Central District to a SANFL premiership in 2001 — has to date coached 382 games for Hawthorn.
4. JOHN “JACK” WORRALL
Worrall remains one of only two coaches to coach five premierships in the AFL/VFL, alongside Frank Hughes. Only two coaches have more flags – the legendary Jock McHale and Norm Smith.
Born and raised in Maryborough, Worrall moved to Ballarat where he was scouted to join Fitzroy. Worrall — who was also a champion cricketer — would captain the Maroons for seven years, represent Victoria and was named “champion of the colony” twice.
Worrall joined Carlton as secretary/manager in 1902, and is credited by some as being football’s first coach. He held the role at the Blues for 144 games between 1902-09, which included consecutive flags between 1906-08.
He left Carlton after a falling out, but headed to Essendon as coach in 1911, immediately leading the Bombers to back-to-back flags. He coached the club for 135 games between 1911-15 and 1918-20. He later became a journalist.
3. MICK MALTHOUSE
The battler from Ballarat had a respectable playing career, but his place in the AFL history books is cemented thanks to his incredible coaching career.
Recruited from North Ballarat, he played 174 games at St Kilda and Richmond, including the 1980 Tigers premiership, and after his retirement took on the senior coach role at Footscray in 1984.
In 1990, he headed to West Coast Eagles whom he took to finals every year of his 10-season tenure, which included the club’s first grand final in 1991 and premierships in 1992 and 1994. That was followed by 12 seasons at Collingwood from 2000-11, in which the Magpies played in eight finals series and made the grand finals in 2002, 2003, 2010 (in which they won the replayed grand final against St Kilda) and 2011.
He finished his coaching career at Carlton, finishing with 718 games overall, overtaking the record held by Jock McHale of 713.
2. RON BARASSI
A legend of Australian rules football and a revolutionary coach, Barassi won six premierships across his playing career at Melbourne. He then won another four as coach — two at Carlton, ending a 21-year drought with the first of those in 1968, and North Melbourne’s first two VFL premierships.
Barassi, who spent his childhood in Guildford and inspired the code’s father-son rule, coached 515 games in total, across Carlton, North Melbourne, Melbourne and Sydney.
The 1970 Grand Final has long been considered one of the greatest of all time. The biggest football crowd ever recorded at the ‘G — 121,696 — packed in to witness not only the infamous mark from Alex Jesaulenko but one of the greatest comebacks of all time — the Blues trailed by 44 points at half time before beating the Magpies by 10 points. Barassi’s halftime message to the Carlton players to handball at all costs, plus the decision to introduce 19th man Ted Hopkins, contributed to the win.
He also turned around the fortunes of North Melbourne, which had claimed the wooden spoon in 1972. Barassi started as coach the following year, and the Kangaroos played every grand final between 1974-78, winning in 1975 and ’77.
1. ALLAN JEANS
There is a very good reason the AFL Coaches Association senior coach of the year award is named for a boy from Tocumwal.
Allan Jeans’ AFL/VFL career was launched in 1955, the year after he played in a Murray league premiership with Finley. He played 77 games for St Kilda, but later, as its coach for 332 games between 1961-76, delivered the club its one and only premiership. At three-quarter time in the 1966 Grand Final, with the Saints holding a slender four-point lead, “Yabby” told his charges: “You’ve got 25 minutes to make a name for yourself like you’ve never made before!” St Kilda would win a historic one-point victory against Collingwood. After the game Jeans said: “I’m not skilled enough or learned enough to tell you how I feel, but no matter where you go, or what you do in life, I’ll always remember what you did for me this day.”
Jeans’ other three flags came at the Hawks in the 1980s — Hawthorn made the grand final every year from 1983-89 and won flags in 1983, 1986, 1988 (coached by Alan Joyce as Jeans was unwell that season) and 1989.
Jeans, who also served as a police officer for almost 30 years, coached Richmond for a season, retiring with 575 matches as a coach in total under his belt. Unsurprisingly, he was named coach of St Kilda’s Team of the Century.
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