Vic Country: Ballarat coaching legend John Northey backs return of Big V

John Northey is a Ballarat coaching great, firstly with Redan and then the Ballarat interleague. He also wants to see the Big V return for country footballers.

There was no bigger name in the Ballarat Football League than John Northey for a decade from the mid-1970s.

The Derinallum junior was recruited by Richmond after one season with Mortlake and played in the Tigers’ 1967 and 1969 VFL flags.

In 1974, he was appointed Redan coach and led the one-time easy beat to three successive flags before replicating the run with Ballarat’s interleague team.

But the country championship hat-trick that played a major part in Northey in landing his first VFL coaching job with Sydney, nearly didn’t happen.

“Ballarat had never won a game in the country championships,” he said.

“The first night of training we had five players turn up.

“I called a meeting of league directors and told them: ‘You aren’t fair dinkum and do we really want to go ahead with this or not?’

“It came down to one vote to play and we then won three in a row.

“In the end it became a privilege to play.”

John Northey coached the Ballarat league three successive country championships wins against Western Border, Ovens & Murray and Goulburn Valley in the early 1980s.

The country championships were once a big deal.

Prizemoney was paid to participating leagues by major sponsor Winfield, but to be crowned the state’s best it required winning four matches.

Retired Australian batsman Keith Stackpole was the company’s promotions manager and accompanied Paul Hogan to the 1979 final when Latrobe Valley beat Bendigo at the QEO with its celebrity spruiker presenting the cup to the victors.

“We sponsored Latrobe Valley football before anything else,” Stackpole said.

“Alan Schwab, who was assistant secretary to Jack Hamilton at the VFL, then got in touch with us and it blossomed from there.

“It was a magnificent sponsorship because the grand finals were always jam-packed with people.

“Winning them was a really big thing.

“Hoges was actually quite shy until he got a microphone in front of his face.”

Keith Stackpole and Paul Hogan on the Paul Hogan Show in 1980.

Ballarat’s commitment to the championships required seismic change.

But Northey secured all important buy-in with a new-found professionalism, including a rule whereby if a player was picked in the squad and didn’t train they would be fined or suspended for club matches.

After back-to-back wins by Latrobe Valley in 1979-80, Ballarat won the next three against Western Border, Ovens & Murray and Goulburn Valley, a record that stood until the late 1990s when O & M pieced together four successive wins.

Ballarat boasted two outstanding ruckmen, Don Discher and Peter Brown, with Peter Tunbridge, Paul Armstrong, Tony Howlett, Ian Baker and Mark Russell part of the support cast.

Peter Brown was a star ruckman for North Ballarat in the 1980s along with the Ballarat interleague team. Picture: Supplied

The late Danny Frawley and his brother Michael also played in the golden era with 19-year-old Danny famously going head-to-head with Gary Ablett on a wing in a match at Albury in 1983.

The following season the pair were at St Kilda and Geelong.

Northey also showed faith in 1970s VFL firebrand Robbie Muir by making him vice-captain one year.

“All he needed was that bit of authority,” Northey said.

“He was a terrific player.”

In 1983-84, Northey coached the Victorian Country team in Victoria for the first time after three matches in a row against the ACT in Canberra.

Bendigo’s QEO was the venue for the first match against the Australian Amateurs in 1983 with the country line-up including Bairnsdale’s Tom Alvin and South Bendigo’s Peter Dean, who would be teammates at Carlton the following season and Blues’ premiership players in 1987.

Dean is now an Upper Murray farmer, who also coaches Lavington’s under-18 team in the O & M.

The late Danny Frawley played for Ballarat before joining St Kilda. He also coached Vic Country in 2018. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Northey has backed calls for the Big V’s return.

He said modern day players were entitled to the same opportunities Alvin and Dean were afforded almost four decades ago.

“These young blokes at times don’t get the opportunity to show what they’ve got,” Northey said.

“Some might be playing in a struggling side back in their own league.

“But when they get a better side they are able to show their skills.

“I’m sure it would create interest among AFL scouts because in a lot of cases they wouldn’t have seen a lot of these players in action.”